Tragedy at Sea: The Sea Witch and Esso Brussels crash in 1973

While going through the Frank J. Trezza Seatrain Shipbuilding collection, I got intrigued by one of the images of a very damaged container ship named the Sea Witch.  This led me to find out more about the ship and what happened.

On June 2, 1973, just after midnight, the SS C.V. Sea Witch, built by Bath Iron Works was leaving New York harbor when the ship lost steering control and collided into the fully loaded tanker SS Esso Brussels, right under the Verrazano Bridge.  The 31,000 barrels of crude oil released from three ruptured tanks ignited and the resulting fire engulfed both ships.  A total of 16 crewmembers and two captains died in the tragedy.  Nearby beaches were polluted and damage to the ships and cargo amounted to about $23 million.

This article found on the professional mariner website sheds some light into personal accounts of what happened right before the collision and afterward.  Most of the Esso Brussels crew was asleep at this hour of the night.  The mate standing watch did not have much notice, and the crew was alerted with only a two minute warning before impact.  The Sea Witch's bow rammed into the side of Esso Brussels, and the fire of flaming oil began instantaneously, spreading rapidly.  When the fire boat firefighters arrived minutes after the collision the firefighters could not tell that two ships were involved, because both ships were enveloped in flames.

I also searched for newspaper coverage of the accident from when it happened.  The New York Times had interviewed Albert Ameida, chief engineer of the Sea Witch, after the accident.  The then 53 year-old, a veteran of the sea was in the engine room of the Sea Witch when it sliced into the tanker Esso Brussels and instantly was enveloped in flame.  Mr. Almeida, obeying an instinct he cannot explain, reversed the ship's engine; the act pulled the Sea Witch back from the pool of fire and made survival of crew members possible (Montgomery, P. L. (1973, June 03). 'I knew this was my day to die.' says heroic engineer who saved his shipmates . The New York Times).

The National Transportation Safety Board determined that the probable cause was a mechanical failure in the steering system of the Sea Witch and the lack of adequate and timely action by the crew to control their ship after the failure occurred.   A Department of Transportation Coast Guard report gives very specific details on the accident and technical specifications. This report was the results from the findings by the U.S. Coast Guard Marine Board of Investigations.  The report explains that steering systems on ships are designed in anticipation of certain types of failure, and appropriate alarms and counter-measures are provided.  From the report, "the helmsman on the Sea Witch detected a steering malfunction not because of any alarm or change in the indicator lights on the steering stand, but because he could not bring the ship to the desired heading."  This means that no one on the bridge had any clues about the malfunction to help them restore steering control in a hurry or to suggest whether the malfunction was correctable on the bridge. When the collision happened, the Sea Witch bored about 40 feet into the hull of the Esso Brussels while suffering only about 20 feet of damage to its own bow.  If the bow of the Sea Witch had not penetrated the hull of the Esso Brussels, there would have been no fire, pollution, or loss of life.  A court case which followed the accident cleared Bath Iron Works of any charges for the failed steering system on Sea Witch, which caused the accident.

In 1977, the Sea Witch was brought into Dry Dock number 3 at the Brooklyn Navy Yard with the intention to rebuild the ship. I recently contacted Frank Trezza to see what his memory was of Seatrain Shipbuilding's involvement with repairing the ship. Frank confirmed that the Sea Witch was at the Brooklyn Navy Yard and was worked on by Seatrain Shipbuilding.

"The forward deck house which included the deck house was cut free and placed on the rear house. The burners cut completely around the outside of the hull just about 6 inches forward of the engine room bulkhead. The dry dock was filled with water and the section forward of the engine room was towed out of the dry dock. No other work was done on her by Seatrain Shipbuilding, and then she was towed out of the Navy Yard and brought to Red Hook (either Todd's Yard or Bushey's Yard), where she stayed for years."

Seatrain shipbuilding had a $10 million dollar contract to turn the Sea Witch into a stainless steel chemical tanker.  After many years the engine room section with the forward house on top was towed to Newport News in Virginia, it was here that Shipbuilding turned Sea Witch into a chemical carrier.

There is also a chapter in Mr. Trezzza's book  "Brooklyn Steel-Blood Tenacity" on the Sea Witch.   Frank Trezza took these images of the damaged ship in 1977.

Interested in doing your own research using BHS’s collection? Visit BHS’s Othmer Library Wed-Fri, 1:00-5:00 p.m.