Mystery Wreck: Is It The Munger T. Ball or the Joseph M. Cudahy?

Ninety-three miles southwest of Ft. Myers, Florida, 145 feet below the surface, rests a cargo ship that was brutally sunk by German U-boat, U-507, patrolling the Gulf of Mexico during World War II. The ship was transporting oil in its large cargo holds when it went down. Still today, the wreck leaks its cargo oil marking the surface with an oil slick and giving the wreck it’s name, “Oil Wreck,” because its official name is still unknown.

What is known is that the Oil Wreck is one of two cargo ships sunk by Harro Schacht, commander of U-507 on May 5, 1942. The two ships, Munger T. Ball and Joseph M. Cudahy, were in close approximation to each other and met their demise on the same day. Since their sinking, it has been undetermined which wreck is which.

On May 3, 2007 a team of exploration divers lead by Jim Joseph of Fantasea Scuba departed Ft. Myers onboard the Ultimate Getaway live-aboard dive boat for a three-day and three-night adventure to search for clues in hopes of identifying the real name of the Oil Wreck. The team was made up of technical divers from Fantasea Scuba, employees of Dive Rite, including its owner Lamar Hires, the publisher of Divingindepth.com, and the owners of Fill Express dive shop. The team would be diving the wreck on the anniversary of its sinking, 65 years ago and hoped that the mystery could finally be solved.

With the Oil Wreck resting at 120 feet, the O2ptima rebreather was a good choice for maximizing bottom time by minimizing decompression obligations.

The Ultimate Getaway was leaving the dock at 7 PM sharp for the nine-hour ride out to the wreck. The dock bustled with activity as divers arrived for the trip and loaded their dive gear onboard. The team’s gear ranged from large low-pressure double cylinders with aluminum 40cf decompression stage cylinders to Dive Rite’s Optima rebreather system to underwater dive scooters (DPVs). Several underwater camera and video systems were also loaded to document the trip. Large T-cylinders of helium and oxygen along with a large booster pump also had to be loaded to supply the team with the needed trimix bottom gas and nitrox and oxygen decompression gasses.

With this large amount of gear, the team was limited to 13 divers - the Ultimate Getaway can typically accommodate up to 20 divers - giving the team plenty of room to rig gear and operate during the trip. Pulling away from the dock as the sun was setting made a magnificent beginning to the trip. As the 100-foot Ultimate Getaway motored into the Gulf of Mexico, the sun set and everyone moved inside to relax in the salon with stories of trips past and talk of the days ahead. With nine hours of traveling ahead, the team soon turned in for a good night’s sleep in the calm seas knowing that by morning the dives would begin. Breakfast call was 7 AM sharp as the team rolled out of their bunks for the day’s diving.

A diver peers at the ship's windlass, hoping to reveal answers to the mystery surrounding the actual name of the Oil Wreck. (Steve Straatsma)

The Ultimate Getaway was anchored just over the wreck with a stern anchor attached directly to the bow of the wreck. The seas were calm and visibility on top looked to be 100 feet plus. Hundreds of barracuda could be seen hovering in the blue water marking the spot as well, and the shimmering oil slick on the surface was also a dead give away that we were on the right wreck.

O2ptima rebreather divers suited up, checked their breathing loops, gas supply, and dive plans, while open circuit divers cracked open their manifold valves and donned their wetsuits. Decompression tanks were staged at the back of the boat so that the boat crew could hand them to divers as they entered the water. Video camera and still camera equipment was assembled and checked. HID lights were turned on to verify proper operation, and dive computers were programmed with correct breathing gases.

A diver drifts by the only prop blade left on the wreck. (Steve Straatsma)

With the stern anchor leading directly to the wreck, divers could giant stride into the water and head straight down. As divers descended through the clear blue water and past the barracuda, the dark shadow of the wreck came into view quickly. A thermocline at 20 feet and then another at 100 feet changed the water temperature from 78 F on the surface to 74 F on the bottom. Reaching a depth of 120 feet, the visibility drastically reduced to a mere 30 feet. A snotty-looking, large particulate drifted in the slight bottom current creating a snow-like effect that hammered visibility. On the first dive, the team simply evaluated the wreck and surfaced with ideas on how the rest of the dives would go and where to look for clues.

The wreck lies on the bottom with a 120-degree list to starboard, almost upside down. The starboard side is buried in the sand, with the port side rising enough off the bottom that divers can enter the wreck. The bow is mostly intact but damaged. Amidships, the wreck is broken in two just in front of the boilers. One of the boilers is dislodged and now sits upright in the wreckage, while the other sits as it did when the ship was in service. From the boiler area to the stern, the ship is badly broken up. The hull still rises off the bottom, but the superstructure is broken and scattered. The engine room area is open allowing access and a swim-through. One blade of the prop still exists and both windlasses are visible, one lying in the sand next to the wreck and the other still on the ship.Due to the location of the wreck being in the shrimp grounds, nets drape parts of the wreck. Sea turtle remains are stuck in the nets, revealing just how deadly these nets can be to all wildlife in the sea.

Fishing nets of passing trawlers become hung up in the wrecks, creating death traps for sea creatures such as turtles. (Steve May)

With the reduced visibility, the team knew that pictures and video would be much harder to get, but that the mission to solve the mystery of the wreck’s name would not be hampered. Discussing plans over lunch and a surface interval, the team had plans to enter certain parts of the ship and salvage anything that might have clues to its name. Other team members, despite the reduced visibility, made plans to shoot pictures and video as best they could. Dive plans ranged from 30-45 minutes of bottom time with up to 30+ minutes of deco depending on whether divers were diving open circuit or closed circuit.

The O2ptima rebreather divers had the ability to keep their PPO2s constant throughout the dive reducing decompression obligations…one of the beauties of diving a rebreather. Divers padded their deco as getting bent 90+ miles offshore wasn’t an option. With buddy teams taking pictures and shooting video, exploring the outside and inside of the wreck, all bases were covered. In the engine room area, one team worked to find any artifacts that might have a serial number or name that could be traced to firmly identify the wreck, while other teams searched the wreckage.

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It wasn’t long before Ryan Meyer of Dive Rite emerged from the wreck with the telegraph in tow. Hanging from a lift bag, Ryan towed the 60-pound artifact back to the deco line and surfaced with the best artifact found at that point. Everyone knew that it offered the best chance to find a name or serial number etched in the metal revealing her identity. Back on board, the team hovered around the find hoping that the encrusted growth could be removed revealing something that would identify the wreck.

A view of a diver from inside the wreckage. (Steve Straatsma)

Teams were making multiple dives each day, and with 13 divers, there were 30+ dives made on the wreck in two days. Several more artifacts were found, but none revealed the name or any other clues that would help to identify the wreck. With time running out, the team made final dives on the wreck as well as scootering off the wreck in hopes of finding wreckage lying in the sand that might reveal clues. Some debris was found, but nothing that would help. By the end of the second day of diving, with nothing new found, all hopes wrested on the telegraph find. Would it reveal a clue that would finally give name to the wreck? Only time would tell. As of the printing of this article, the telegraph has been cleaned and revealed the telegraph’s manufacturer name and a serial number, but no other information could be found that would lead to the name of the wreck. The research continues and once the mystery is solved, we’ll let you know.