A 2017 shipwreck off Hilton Head killed 3 people. Now other boats are in danger
A shifting shipwreck that left three boaters dead in 2017 has caused perfect storm conditions for other ships and contributed to the demise of one just 4 miles off Hilton Head Island’s south end.
As first reported by the Charleston Post and Courier, a wooden fishing boat named “Miss Annie” was torn apart Dec. 19 when it hit wreckage left from two years earlier because the crew was using outdated mariner’s maps that showed the wreckage in a different location, according to the U.S. Coast Guard and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
While the crew members aboard “Miss Annie” were rescued, the submerged boat they hit in 17-foot-deep water was a drifter — a wreck that was never salvaged and had apparently shifted 700 yards from where it originally sank.
Turns out, the crew aboard the “Miss Annie” wasn’t the first to have troubles in the water between Hilton Head, Daufuskie and Tybee Islands.
How did it happen?
On May 23, 2017, a steel-hulled fishing boat named “Miss Debbie” encountered a waterspout and capsized off the south end of Hilton Head Island, according to Bryan Johnson, a Coast Guard marine investigator.
The 47-foot vessel found its place at the bottom of the 17-foot-deep sea, according to Richard Keefauver with Coast Guard Sector Charleston and nautical maps.
The three members onboard the “Miss Debbie” were deemed missing, and a three-day search covered 1,800 miles around the site of the wreck before it was called off. The three crew members are believed to have died, Johnson said.
“Suspending a case is never an easy decision, nor is it a decision that is hastily made,” Captain Gary Tomasulo, commander of the Coast Guard Sector Charleston, said at the time in a news release. “We remain ready to re-institute a search if new information becomes available.”
The remains of the tragic wreck were never salvaged from the ocean floor, according to Keefauver. At low water, the wreck was visible to passing boaters, he said.
Offshore salvages are the most difficult type of salvages, according to Soumyajit Dasgupta, a writer with Marine Insight.
“These operations encompass stranded or sunken ships in open waters and are often too challenging as the ships would be exposed to sea waves and weather,” Dasgupta wrote. “The procedure may take months as the hostility of the nature could hinder the workflow.”
Unusual tides or inclement weather often make offshore salvages more difficult, and Dasgupta wrote that the wrecks usually must be salvaged quickly after they sink — or not at all.
As with other wrecks, “Miss Debbie” was plotted on a mariner’s map and announced by the Coast Guard, Keefauver said.
But when the Coast Guard plots a wreck on the map, it doesn’t often expect it to move.
“Miss Debbie” did.
On Nov. 3, a yacht leaving Hilton Head Island unexpectedly struck a shipwreck south of Hilton Head where none was plotted. The boat driver was using up-to-date maps, NOAA regional manager Kyle Ward said.
“The vessel sustained damage to its propellers and a transfer of blue paint to its hull was noted,” Johnson added. “Coast Guard’s Waterways Management Division in Charleston determined the Miss Debbie’s blue painted hull was the most likely source of the damage and if so, had shifted from its previous location.”
“Miss Debbie” had apparently shifted nearly 700 yards away from where NOAA plotted it in 2017.
While no one onboard was injured, the yacht was damaged, and the Coast Guard came to investigate.
“I’d never actually experienced a shipwreck moving,” Keefauver said. “But it had been just sitting on the sand, not a hard bottom. It moved with the weather.”
While most shipwrecks are stable, the movement of “Miss Debbie” is attributed to recent storm seasons and the soft sand it sits on. Most recently, a much higher-profile wreck near the Niagara Falls moved 160 feet downriver and closer to the falls after a storm brought 50- mph winds to the area in November, The New York Times reported.
In the case of “Miss Debbie,” NOAA issued a new map that showed the wreckage’s new location — while just 700 yards away from where it’d sunk, the boat was completely submerged at both high and low water levels.
Nearly a month and a half later, the three-member crew of the “Miss Annie” appeared with outdated maps and struck the wreck again. While the crew was rescued from the sinking vessel, the ship was a complete loss, Keefauver said.
Neither wreck is visible from the water or the shores of Hilton Head Island, but the trio of maritime collisions is causing concern for the Coast Guard.
“Any accidental (collisions) with the wreck should be reported to the Coast Guard on VHF Channel 16 or Sector Charleston’s Command Center at 843-740-7050,” Johnson told The Island Packet. “We highly recommend all vessels update their charts so they can avoid this wreck when in the area.”
This story was originally published January 29, 2020 at 4:00 AM with the headline "A 2017 shipwreck off Hilton Head killed 3 people. Now other boats are in danger."
