SS ''El Estero'' was a ship filled with ammunition that caught fire at dockside in

New York Harbor New York Harbor is at the mouth of the Hudson River where it empties into New York Bay near the East River tidal estuary, and then into the Atlantic Ocean on the east coast of the United States. It is one of the largest natural harbors in t ...

in 1943, but was successfully moved away and sunk by the heroic efforts of tug boats and fireboats, averting a major disaster.

The ship

The ''El Estero'' was built as a general cargo steamship for the Southern Pacific Steamship Lines at the Downey Shipbuilding Yard in

Staten Island, New York Staten Island ( ) is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City, coextensive with Richmond County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. Located in the city's southwest portion, the borough is separated from New Jersey b ...

and delivered for service in September 1920. The first of three sister ships built for the line, ''El Estero'' was operated by the Morgan Line in the

short-sea shipping The modern terms short-sea shipping (sometimes unhyphenated), marine highway, and motorways of the sea, and the more historical terms coastal trade, coastal shipping, coasting trade, and coastwise trade, all encompass the movement of cargo and pass ...

trade primarily between the ports of

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and

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for much of her commercial service life. Acquired by the

US Maritime Commission The United States Maritime Commission (MARCOM) was an independent executive agency of the U.S. federal government that was created by the Merchant Marine Act of 1936, which was passed by Congress on June 29, 1936, and was abolished on May 24, 195 ...

on June 10, 1941, as part of an effort to increase US-Flag merchant marine shipping capacity, ''El Estero'' was purchased from Southern Pacific and placed operation with

United States Lines United States Lines was the trade name of an organization of the United States Shipping Board (USSB), Emergency Fleet Corporation (EFC) created to operate German liners seized by the United States in 1917. The ships were owned by the USSB and all ...

under a Panamanian

registry Registry may refer to: Computing * Container registry, an operating-system-level virtualization registry * Domain name registry, a database of top-level internet domain names * Local Internet registry * Metadata registry, information system for re ...

. Pressed into service carrying war supplies from the United States to Europe during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, the ship made several

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crossings in convoys which frequently came under

U-boat U-boats were naval submarines operated by Germany, particularly in the First and Second World Wars. Although at times they were efficient fleet weapons against enemy naval warships, they were most effectively used in an economic warfare role ...

attack, including

Convoy PQ 13 PQ 13 was a British Arctic convoy that delivered war supplies from the Western Allies to the USSR during World War II. The convoy was subject to attack by German air, U-boat and surface forces and suffered the loss of five ships, plus one escort ...

in March 1942. Continued this duty until Jan. 4, 1943. On Jan. 4, 1943 operation of the ship was turned over to William J. Rountree Company.''El Estero'' put into

in early April 1943 where she waited her turn to load munitions at the long finger pier of the New York Port of Embarkation's

Caven Point Caven or Cavens may refer to: People * Albert Cavens (1906–1985), Belgian-American silent film actor *Ingrid Caven (born 1938), German film actress *Jamie Caven (born 1976), English darts player * John Caven (Canadian politician) (c.1838–?), Ca ...

Terminal off

Jersey City, New Jersey Jersey City is the second-most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey, after Newark."The El Estero Fire and How the US Coast Guard Helped Save New York Harbor"
by William H. Thiesen, ''Sea History'' 126 , Spring 2009 The initial report of fire aboard ''El Estero'' brought an immediate response of five fire trucks from the

Jersey City Fire Department The Jersey City Fire Department is the largest fire department in the state of New Jersey and provides fire protection, hazardous materials services, and first responder emergency medical services to the city of Jersey City. In all, the departme ...

, two 30-foot fireboats and roughly 60 volunteers from the

U.S. Coast Guard The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and law enforcement service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the country's eight uniformed services. The service is a maritime, military, mul ...

to battle and contain the flames aboard the ship, which was moored directly opposite two other fully loaded ammunition ships and two ammunition-laden consists of railroad boxcars. With over 5,000 tons of ammunition (comparable to a

tactical nuclear weapon A tactical nuclear weapon (TNW) or non-strategic nuclear weapon (NSNW) is a nuclear weapon that is designed to be used on a battlefield in military situations, mostly with friendly forces in proximity and perhaps even on contested friendly territo ...

) now in immediate danger of being set off by the fire on ''El Estero'' and with memories of the

Black Tom explosion The Black Tom explosion was an act of sabotage by agents of the German Empire, to destroy U.S.-made munitions that were to be supplied to the Allies of World War I, Allies in World War I. The explosions, which occurred on July 30, 1916, in New Y ...

fresh on the minds of many at the scene, fire fighting efforts began in earnest. It was quickly discovered that the location and intensity of the fire prevented access to the ships'

seacock A seacock is a valve on the hull of a boat or a ship, permitting water to flow into the vessel, such as for cooling an engine or for a salt water faucet; or out of the boat, such as for a sink drain or a toilet. Seacocks are often a Kingston va ...

s, making any attempt at scuttling the ship impossible, and the call went out to the

New York City Fire Department The New York City Fire Department, officially the Fire Department of the City of New York (FDNY), is an American department of the government of New York City that provides fire protection services, technical rescue/special operations services, ...

, which in turn dispatched its two most powerful fireboats; ''

Fire Fighter A firefighter is a first responder and rescuer extensively trained in firefighting, primarily to extinguish conflagration, hazardous fires that threaten life, property, and the environment as well as to rescue people and in some cases or jurisd ...

'' and ''

John J. Harvey ''John J. Harvey'' is a fireboat formerly of the New York City Fire Department in New York City, famed for returning to service following the September 11, 2001 attacks. She is among the most powerful fireboats ever built, capable of pumping up ...

'', to the scene. Arriving at 6:30 pm and immediately running hoses up to Coast Guardsmen on the burning ship, the fireboats took positions directly alongside ''El Estero'' as a trio of commercial

tugboats A tugboat or tug is a marine vessel that manoeuvres other vessels by pushing or pulling them, with direct contact or a tow line. These boats typically tug ships in circumstances where they cannot or should not move under their own power, suc ...

made up a towline to her bow and began pulling her off the Caven Point Pier towards open waters on through

The Narrows __NOTOC__ The Narrows is the tidal strait separating the boroughs of Staten Island and Brooklyn in New York City, United States. It connects the Upper New York Bay and Lower New York Bay and forms the principal channel by which the Hudson Riv ...

. Despite the high probability of the ship's volatile cargo exploding at any moment, the Coast Guardsmen, fire fighters and tug crews continued their efforts to contain the fire on ''El Estero'' to save as much of the ship and cargo as possible, but shortly after the tow began the Port Admiral of

ordered the ship sunk. Shifting to a shallow area of water near

Robbins Reef Light The Robbins Reef Light Station is a sparkplug lighthouse located off Constable Hook in Bayonne, Hudson County, New Jersey, United States, along the west side of Main Channel, Upper New York Bay. Note that although the light is clearly shown on the ...

Upper New York Bay New York Harbor is at the mouth of the Hudson River where it empties into New York Bay near the East River tidal estuary, and then into the Atlantic Ocean on the east coast of the United States. It is one of the largest natural harbors in t ...

, the fireboats began pumping their combined maximum capacity of 38,000 gallons of water per minute into ''El Esteros cargo holds, which succeeded in swamping the ship and sent her to the bottom shortly after 9PM with much of her superstructure still above the surface. With all hotspots declared extinguished by 11:30PM on the 24th, the all-clear for residents and businesses ringing New York Harbor was transmitted over the radio and what is considered to have been the single greatest threat to

during

passed without major incident or loss of life.Time Ebbs for the Heroes Who Saved the Harbor
Clyde Haberman, ''

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'', May 27, 2008

Aftermath

With a shroud of secrecy soon in place over the events surrounding the sinking of ''El Estero'' due in large part to the then-classified mission of the Caven Point Army Depot, public knowledge of the near disaster remained low until 1944 when the first of several awards for heroism were distributed to the first responders. ''El Estero'' herself would remain in her sunken state for the better part of four months before the still-loaded ship was finally raised from the seafloor and towed out of the harbor for use as a naval gunnery target. Her untimely end and its legacy are still very much visible today in the modern-day

Sandy Hook Bay The Raritan Bayshore region of New Jersey is a subregion of the larger Jersey Shore. It is the area around Raritan Bay from The Amboys to Sandy Hook, in Monmouth and Middlesex counties, including the towns of Woodbridge, Perth Amboy, South Amboy, ...

, where in August 1943 the

US Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage of ...

began construction of a new ammunition depot in New Jersey, now known as

Naval Weapons Station Earle Naval Weapons Station Earle is a United States Navy base in Monmouth County, New Jersey, United States. Its distinguishing feature is a pier in Sandy Hook Bay where ammunition can be loaded and unloaded from warships at a safe distance from heavi ...

which features a 2.9-mile pier designed to move the hazardous activity of loading and unloading munitions away from densely populated areas. Over half a century later, both the ''Fire Fighter'' and ''John J. Harvey'', the latter then a

museum ship A museum ship, also called a memorial ship, is a ship that has been preserved and converted into a museum open to the public for educational or memorial purposes. Some are also used for training and recruitment purposes, mostly for the small numb ...

, helped fight fires at

Ground Zero In relation to nuclear explosions and other large bombs, ground zero (also called surface zero) is the point on the Earth's surface closest to a detonation. In the case of an explosion above the ground, ''ground zero'' is the point on the ground ...

in the aftermath of the

September 11, 2001 The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commerc ...

attacks.

The ship

Aftermath

References

See also