SS Bloody Marsh
Oil Tanker · United States · Lost 1943 · The Georgia & South Carolina Coast
A brand-new oil tanker torpedoed twice on her maiden voyage off the Georgia-South Carolina coast, found by NOAA more than 75 years later.
Become Captain of RecordSee Shipwreck on Map
The Vessel and Her Loss
Bloody Marsh was a newly built T2 tanker on her maiden voyage from Houston to New York when German submarine U-66 torpedoed her twice off the South Carolina coast on 2 July 1943. She broke in two and sank quickly, killing three crewmen; survivors escaped in lifeboats despite U-66 surfacing and striking one boat. Long presumed lost in deep water with a still-hazardous cargo of fuel oil, her wreck was located by a NOAA expedition in 2021.
Vessel
- 1943
- Sun Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Co.
- Chester, Pennsylvania
- Steel
- Not established
- Not established
- 10195
- Steam turbine, single screw
- Cities Service Oil Co.
Loss
- July 2, 1943
- Enemy action
- Approximately 80 miles off the South Carolina coast
- Atlantic Ocean
- Houston, Texas → New York
- 106,496 barrels of Navy bunker fuel oil
- 77
- 3
- Master Albert Harrison Barnes
The Wreck Today
- 1837 ft
- Broke in two while sinking; located resting on the seabed in deep water
- Not established
- 2021
- Monitored under NOAA's Potentially Polluting Wrecks program
Position
- 31.55° N 78.60° W
- Approximate position
- Approximately 80 miles offshore of South Carolina, near the Georgia state line
Uboat.net records the attack position as approximately 31°33'N, 78°57'W; NOAA's 2021 discovery position has not been fully published in the sources reviewed.
Evidence
Overall confidence: Well documented (90/100)
The precise resting position identified by NOAA's 2021 expedition has not been published in detail in the sources reviewed.
Vessel history, sinking narrative, and 2021 discovery.
Attack position, date, and casualty figures.
