AH-WR-1173

USAT Brigadier General M. G. Zalinski

Army Transport / Cargo Ship · United States · Lost 1946 · The British Columbia Coast

A U.S. Army transport carrying bombs and hundreds of tonnes of fuel oil sank in Grenville Channel in a 1946 storm and has required repeated oil-removal operations ever since.

Become Captain of Record

Artistic recreation based on recorded historical documents. See the documented evidence.

Historically Reconstructed. Drawn from partial documentation of this vessel together with her known class and configuration. See the documented evidence.

The Vessel and Her Loss

USAT Brigadier General M. G. Zalinski, a former Great Lakes freighter converted to a U.S. Army transport, was carrying army supplies, ammunition, bombs, and roughly 700 tonnes of fuel oil from Seattle to Whittier, Alaska, when she struck rocks off Pitt Island in Grenville Channel during a storm on September 26, 1946, and sank within about 20 minutes. All 48 aboard were rescued by a tug and a passenger steamer. The wreck, lying upside down in the Inside Passage, has periodically leaked oil for decades, prompting Canadian Coast Guard salvage operations in 2013 and again in 2024.

Vessel

Built: 1919
Builder: American Ship Building Company
Yard: Lorain, Ohio
Material: Steel
Length: 251 ft
Beam: 44 ft
Tonnage: 2600
Propulsion: Steam or diesel, single screw
Owners: United States War Department

Loss

Date: September 26, 1946
Cause: Grounding
Location: Grenville Channel, near Pitt Island, British Columbia, about 100 km south of Prince Rupert
Water: Grenville Channel, Inside Passage
Voyage: Seattle, Washington → Whittier, Alaska
Cargo: Army supplies, ammunition, at least twelve 500-pound bombs, and roughly 700 tonnes of bunker fuel oil
Aboard: 48
Lives lost: 0
Master: Not established

The Wreck Today

Depth: 130
Condition: Lies upside down on a rock ledge, deteriorating and periodically leaking oil
Orientation: Upside down
Discovered: Not established
Protection: Monitored and managed by the Canadian Coast Guard as a pollution hazard.