SS Alcoa Puritan
Marker: recorded wreck position (Date not recorded).
Key facts
| Name | SS Alcoa Puritan | Wikidata label |
|---|---|---|
| Ship type | cargo ship | Wikidata P31 instance of |
| Cause of loss | War action | Keyword match in English Wikipedia lead sentence |
| Conflict | World War II | Wikidata P607 conflict |
| Sea / ocean | Gulf of Mexico | Natural Earth marine areas (public domain), point-in-polygon |
| Nearest coast | United States | Natural Earth (public domain); approx. 91 km from land |
| Position | 28.5833, -88.3667 | Wikidata P625 coordinate location (CC0) |
About the wreck
SS Alcoa Puritan was a cargo ship in the service of Alcoa Steamship Company that was torpedoed and sunk in the Gulf of Mexico during World War II.
The SS Alcoa Puritan provided freight and passenger service between U.S. and Caribbean ports. The ship was typically staffed with 10 officers and 33 crew, and could also accommodate 8-10 passengers.
Diving & visiting
Six decades later, contractors performing deep-tow marine surveys for Shell International Exploration and Production encountered a large shipwreck about 45 nautical miles (83 km) south-southeast of the entrance to the Mississippi River, in the Mississippi Canyon area. Based on survey data and historical information, marine archaeologists identified the wreck as the Puritan. C&C Technologies was hired by Shell to conduct further investigations, which began in 2002 and continued for several years. Visual inspections by Sonsub's ROV vessel HOS Dominator found the hull mostly intact, with moderate superstructure damage.
Location
- Recorded position: 28.5833, -88.3667 (Wikidata P625 coordinate location (CC0); may be approximate)
- Sea / ocean: Gulf of Mexico
- Nearest coast: United States
Wreck positions on this site are for interest only and are not for navigation. Many wrecks are war graves or legally protected: never disturb human remains or remove artefacts, and check local law before diving.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article SS Alcoa Puritan (1941) (revision 1372505526), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section and section(s) “Discovery”; condensed by selecting paragraphs; citations and formatting removed. No text added. This excerpt is available under the same licence.
Wreck facts from Wikidata (CC0).
Nearby wrecks
- U-166 1942 · 16 km
- Deepwater Horizon 2010 · 18 km
- Seacor Power 2021 · 186 km
Other wrecks of the World War II
- HMS Thetis 1918
- Admiral Graf Spee 1939
- HMS Blanche 1939
- HMS Duchess 1939
- HMS Rawalpindi 1939
- HMS Seahorse 1939
- SS Binnendijk 1939
- SS Fanad Head 1939
- Stanbrook 1939
- U-12 1939
All 599 wrecks of the World War II →
Browse more: North America wrecks · wrecks off United States · Gulf of Mexico