New search underway for World War II shipwreck that poses pollution threat off Florida coast
Scientists have resumed their search for the SS Norlindo, an elusive and potentially hazardous World War II shipwreck off the coast of Florida, for the third time in less than two years, officials said. This latest attempt to locate the sunken vessel, considered "the first casualty of WWII in the Gulf of Mexico," comes after previous expeditions led by an international team of oceanic explorers and archeologists in 2021 and 2022.
The SS Norlindo was a sprawling American steam freighter measuring 253 feet in length, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. It went down near the small island of Dry Tortugas, about 75 miles from Key West, on May 4, 1942, after being torpedoed by a German U-boat. Officials say the freighter sunk so quickly that five people on its 28-person crew could not escape, and the location of the wreck has remained a mystery ever since.
The most recent attempt to find the SS Norlindo is led by scientists at the University of Southern Mississippi, who ventured out on their research vessel Point Sur on April 14, for an expedition scheduled to wrap up this Saturday. Previous expeditions, led by a team of German, Italian and American scientists and archeologists, began with a three-week search toward the end of 2021. The same team returned for a second search in late January and early February of last year, NOAA said, but bad weather conditions ultimately hampered their efforts.
Although the SS Norlindo has not been found, those expeditions led scientists to identify "several magnetic anomalies" in the Gulf waters that they probed, which they believe could indicate the presence of a shipwreck. Explorers could not survey the designated search area in full during either of their past expeditions because of the early cancellations.
The team involved in the newest search is using high-resolution side-scar sonar technology to reach areas of the potential wreck site that were left unexplored in previous years, according to NOAA.
"If promising targets are located, the team will conduct a successive expedition to deploy a remotely operated vehicle to visually determine if they have indeed found the wreck of this significant piece of our nation's history," the agency wrote in a statement.
In addition to its historical value, finding the SS Norlindo is potentially a matter of environmental importance, as the freighter could still have fuel barrels on board. While scientists cannot predict whether "an acute hazard is present" without seeing the shipwreck and its fuel contents, they have said that the presence of an "intact, but corroding fuel container" on the SS Norlindo could present serious pollution risks and pose threats to the surrounding marine microbiome.
Some estimates by the NOAA's Offices of Marine Sanctuaries suggest that the shipwreck, if intact, could be carrying as much as 5,000 barrels — or about 200,000 gallons — of fuel, the Miami Herald reported. A screening level risk assessment report compiled by that same branch of NOAA has determined that the SS Norlindo is one of 87 shipwrecks in U.S. waters that pose potential pollution threats linked to fuel contents on board the ships when they sunk, the agency said.
