|
Just south of the Monterey Bay National Marine
Sanctuary boundary are the remains of the oil tanker
Montebello. Built in 1921 at the Southwestern Shipbuilding
Company in San Pedro California, the shelter deck tanker
had an overall length of 457 feet (139 meters). The Union
Oil tanker’s career carrying petroleum products was
for the most part uneventful, making regular runs to ports
like the Hawaiian Islands, Siberia, British Columbia and
other ports in the Pacific. On December 22, 1941, Montebello
loaded a cargo of 73,571 barrels (3,089,982 gallons) of
Santa Marina crude oil at the Union Oil Company’s
facility in Port San Luis, California. The crude oil was
so thick it had to be heated before it could be loaded into
the vessel’s nine liquid product cargo tanks. The
destination of the cargo of oil was Vancouver, British Columbia.
|
 With
the outbreak of World War II just three weeks earlier, there
were reports of Japanese submarines attacking merchant ships
along the California coast. On December 23rd at 1:30 a.m.,
the tanker now loaded with the cargo of oil and sitting low
in the water, cleared Port San Luis breakwater proceeding
on a northbound course. At around 3:30 a.m. the crew was called
to station and ordered to put on life jackets, the ship was
notified that the tanker Larry Doheny had been fired
upon north of their location. |
 Ordinary
seamen Richard Quincy, then twenty-two years of age, recalled
the events of the early morning. At 5:00 a.m. it was still
dark, the Montebello’s lights were blacked
out and the vessel’s position was nearing Piedras Blancas
Point. |
 About
a half-hour later, Quincy was on watch and could make out
an object on the water running in the tanker’s wake
and discounted it for a northbound coastal vessel. As the
rising sun silhouetted the trailing vessel off the port
quarter, Quincy realized it was a Japanese submarine low
in the water. The I-21 then repositioned to the starboard
quarter between the tanker and mainland and fired a single
torpedo into the Montebello. At 5:55 the Captain
gave the order to abandoned ship, all thirty-eight crewmen
left the tanker in four lifeboats as the I-21 opened fired
on the boats with its deck gun. |
 The
lifeboats finally pulled away safely from the tanker as
the submarine descended below the surface to avoid detection
from responding aircraft. The crew watched the tanker
settle in the bow, submerging below the surface at 6:45
a.m. As the bow started downward, the crew witnessed the
stern clearing the ocean surface by 150 feet (45 meters).
They concluded the tanker was struck amidships around
the No. 3 tank, but couldn’t understand why the
cargo, with a Grade A Flash point at room temperature,
why the oil did not ichnite? The crew speculated the torpedo
struck between decks above the oil storage tanks.
|
Montebello
Reconnaissance
The Montebello was largely forgotten with the
exception of local fisherman who found the site to be
a productive fishing spot. It was not until members
of the Central Coast Maritime Museum Association considered
nominating the shipwreck to the National Register to
properly memorialize the historic event. Further, there
was the growing concern whether the shipwreck still
contained its toxic cargo of crude oil potentially threatening
the nearby waters of the
Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. A proposal
to investigate the site of the Montebello and
document the integrity of its hull was submitted to
NOAA’s West Coast National Undersea Research Center.
NOAA agreed to fund the investigation utilizing Delta
Oceanographics’ submersible, Delta,
which is capable of working at depths up to 1200 feet
(365 meters). Archaeologist Jack Hunter, President of
the Central Coast Maritime Museum Association, was the
project director and principal investigator.
 On
November 7, 1996, working aboard the research
vessel Cavalier, the science team included
archaeologists, historians, and biologists.
Utilizing a Furuno depth finder, a large target
was located in approximately 850 feet (259 meters)
of water. Delta was launched off the
Cavalier and navigated towards the
target site. Radio communications from Delta
confirmed a large shipwreck had been located
at a depth of nearly 900 feet (274 meters) and
that the submersible would ascend up to the
main deck to confirm the identity. It was discovered
that the shipwreck was covered in fishing nets,
and the pipe configuration on main deck confirmed
the vessel was a tanker. This dive was the first
direct observation of the tanker since the historic
event of being torpedoed by the Japanese Imperial
Navy in California waters 55 years earlier.
Three additional Delta dives were
made to the Montebello, with a total
of fourteen full circumnavigations of the
site recording the condition of the tanker
through still photography and videotape footage.
Observations made during the four dives concluded
the hull was remarkably intact and resting
on an even keel on the ocean floor. The bow
had become detached separating just forward
of the foremast where twisted metal indicated
the torpedo impact zone. It was not until
the end of the fourth reconnaissance dive
that the bow section was located. It was discovered
that the cutwater was buried in the sand some
yards ahead of the main hull, with the aftermost
part of the bow rising above the sea floor
at a 40-degree angle with a slight list to
port.
Based on this observation, it was determined
that during the sinking, Montebello
hit the ocean floor with enough force to drive
the bow deep into the bottom sediment, separating
at the torpedo impact zone. The aft 90 percent
of the hull then recoiled back and settled squarely
in its keel. More importantly the investigation
concluded that the torpedo had not penetrated
the region of the tanker’s oil cargo storage
holds as reported by the Montebello’s
crew, but actually struck forward in the pump
room and dry storage cargo hold. It is the opinion
of principle investigator Jack Hunter that the
Montebello’s cargo of Santa Maria
crude oil is still entombed in the tanker. During
the four videotaped reconnaissance dives in
1996, there were no observations of oil being
introduced into the water column. A Science
team that includes staff members from the Monterey
Bay and Channel
Islands Sanctuaries will be performing reconnaissance
dives to the site on September 23rd & 24th,
2003. One of the goals for the mission is to
continue monitoring the hull’s integrity
and note any changes since the 1996 investigation.
Transcribed by Robert
Schwemmer
|
|
|
|
.pdf