Politics & Government

Freighter Goes Aground Off Belmont Shore

U.S. Coast Guard reports storm winds pushed the 624-foot container ship onto artificial oil island Freeman, but the ship was empty of cargo and no leaks have been found.

Storm shoved a 624-foot freighter aground on Freeman Island, one of four artificial oil operations off Belmont Shore, the U.S. Coast Guard reported.

The container ship Ocean Sunrise had no cargo and no leaks of its fuel were spotted during inspections of the hull, said Petty Officer First Class Adam T. Eggers,  a U.S. Coast Guard spokesman. 

As is customary in any such incident, the crew of 25 were tested for drugs and alcohol within an hour or two of the 6:30 p.m. incident, but results were not available. The freighter by midnight was anchored and no longer aground.

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Freeman Island is behind Chaffee Island, which is the most visible and often lit up in orange hues. Looking from the sand, White Island is to the left of Chaffey. Grissom is the fourth. All four are named after U.S. astronauts who were killed in the line of duty. Freeman is the farthest from shore.

"Basically, the ship was at anchor and with the crazy weather we had a few hours ago, it pushed it onto the island," explained Eggers. "That can happen every so often. So obviously it's a little bit dark outside but we had a team of pollution investigators out and they did did a couple circles of the vessels over a couple of hours and got as close to the shore as they could but have not seen any leaks."

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Further inspections by a Long Beach Harbor Patrol dive team will start after sunrise Saturday to ensure there are no environmental risks in the water, Eggers said.

The man-made islands are heavily landscaped to camouflage their industrial operations. They were constructed for oil- and gas-production equipment. U.S. Air Force Capt. Theodore C. Freeman was the first astronaut to die. (He was in a jet crash in 1964.)

Eggers said the hull of the bulk freighter is black on the top third, making it more easy to spot leaks against that dark backdrop.


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