Lost Ships In Bermuda Triangle - Marine Sulphur Queen

SS Marine Sulphur Queen was originally a T2 tanker built in 1944. There were many such tankers built by the US during World War II to carry oil.

However in 1960, this 524-foot tanker was converted into a carrier of molten sulphur.

For that, they had to modify the ship's internal structure and build huge sulphur carrying tanks.

These tanks would always be kept heated up at high temperatures so that the sulphur remained molten.
On February 2nd 1963, Marine Sulphur Queen started her ill fated voyage from Beaumont, Texas destined towards Norfolk. She was carrying over 15000 tons of molten sulphur and 39 crew members on board.

She was last heard on Feb 4th when a routine radio message was received from the ship. There was nothing unusual in the message. However subsequently when all efforts to communicate with the ship failed, a massive search operation was launched. After 19 days of sea combing operation, the rescue team found only some debris and life preservatives. There was no trace of the ship or its crewmen. The ship had simply disappeared somewhere in the south Florida Straits.

-Investigation of Marine Sulphur Queen mystery

US Coast Guard launched an investigation into the mystery of Suplhur Queen. It was true that at the time of her disappearance, the sea was rough and the waves were some 16-foot high. But can that really make such a huge ship disintegrate altogether?

Here are some of the important investigation findings of US Coast Guards:

# The ship was often seen with fire around the Sulphur tanks. This was caused due to leakage and heat around the tanks. This was so common that often the crew did not even bother about it. In one occasion, the ship even came to a New Jersey port with such burning fire, offloaded sulphur and sailed out while there was still fire around the tanks.

# Due to heavy corrosion, the keel (a structure) in the middle portion of the ship was becoming very week. It was quite possible that the keel could split up. The ship was actually due for its routine maintenance in January before its sail. But the owners insisted that ship required to sail as it was behind its schedule of cargo deliveries. In fact, before the ship started its last sail, a crewman was heard telling his wife ... the ship was a "floating garbage can".

-Conclusion

Well, as extensive search resulted into nothing but only some debris and such, the Coast Guards and the Navy Board reached the conclusion that the ship was actually lost in the sea. They also concluded that it was lost on February 4, 1963 near the Straits of Florida.

While they could not assign any definite cause to the loss, they highlighted that the following could have been the possibilities:

# An explosion could have taken place in the cargo tanks due to leakage.
# The vessel's hull may have split up into two.
# The ship may have been capsized in rough sea.
# A steam explosion may have happened and the crew would have got poisoned.