SS Cotopaxi

Cotopaxi was one of seventeen EFC Design 1060 4,200 DWT, 2,351 GRT steam powered "Laker" type bulk carrier ships built for the USSB by the Great Lakes Engineering Works (GLEW), River Rouge Yard, Ecorse, Michigan, as hull number 209. The design was unique to GLEW[note 1] with deckhouse and engines aft (a design commonly termed a "Stemwinder") with four cargo hatches forward served by two masts.[1][2][note 2]

Cotopaxi, official number[note 3] 217270, signal letters LNWH, was 253.4 ft (77.2 m) registered length, 43.7 ft (13.3 m) beam with a depth of 25.1 ft (7.7 m).[3][4] The keel was laid 29 August 1918, with launch on 15 November, and delivery to the USSB on 30 November 1918.[5][6] The Design 1060 ships were propelled by one triple expansion engine of 1,350 indicated horsepower (1,010 kW) with steam power from two coal fired Scotch marine boilers.[6] The ship was completed at a cost of $827,648.48.[5]

After arrival in Boston, on 22 December 1918, the ship was allocated to a USSB operator serving routes from U.S. ports to the East coast of South America.[6] On 16 June 1919, while on a voyage from Philadelphia to Salvador, Brazil, Cotopaxi ran aground in the Braganca Channel, Pará, Brazil. After jettisoning some 400 tons of coal the ship limped into port on 19 June, badly damaged, including damage to the engines.[6][7][8] Repairs cost nearly $200,000.[6]

On 23 December 1919, Cotopaxi was delivered to the Clinchfield Navigation Company under terms of a sale at a price of $375,000, with $93,750 to be paid cash, with $281,250 to be paid in three installments of $93,750, on promissory notes secured by mortgage on the ship due on 22 December of 1920, 1921, and 1922.[5] In 1920, the ship entered Havana Harbor, on a voyage from Charleston, South Carolina, with a cargo of coal and collided with the Ward Line tug Saturno. Cotopaxi was not seriously damaged but the tug sank. A case resulting from the accident was on appeal determined to be the equal fault of both vessels and damages were thus allocated.[9][10]

On 29 November 1925, Cotopaxi departed Charleston, for Havana, under Captain W. J. Meyer, with a cargo of coal and a crew of thirty-two.[6][11][12] On 1 December, Cotopaxi radioed a distress call reporting that the ship was listing and taking on water[6][11][13] during a tropical storm.[14][15] The ship was officially listed as overdue on 31 December.[11]

The wreck of Cotopaxi lies 35 nmi (65 km; 40 mi) off St. Augustine, Florida.[16] She was discovered in the 1980s, but could not be identified, and subsequently dubbed the "Bear Wreck".[17] Cotopaxi was identified in January 2020, based on fifteen years of investigation by marine biologist Michael Barnette.[17][18][16]

Cotopaxi was one of three of the seventeen Design 1060 ships built at the River Rouge Yard lost and initially listed as missing. Coushatta (hull 216, ON 217728), renamed John Tracy, was listed as missing on a voyage from Norfolk, Virginia, to Boston, January 1927. The ship is now listed among the collier wrecks of Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary where ships with coal cargoes are second only to fishing vessels as victims of disaster.[1][6][19] Coverun (hull 221, ON 218005), after being renamed Mahukona, and then sold and operating as Santa Clara, under the Brazilian flag, was listed as missing southwest of Bermuda, February 1941, while on a voyage from Newport News to Rio de Janeiro.[1][20] Several were lost due to wartime action, with others lost to other causes. Corydon (hull 206, ON 217236) foundered in the Bahama Channel during a hurricane in September 1919. Cottonwood (hull 211, ON 217423), renamed Stanburn, foundered October 1946, after striking a submerged object.[1]

One of the ships, Covena (hull 220, ON 217810), became notable as the unique[note 4] U.S. Army Port Repair ship Junior N. Van Noy. That ship was first of the port repair ships to sail for Europe where it engaged in repairs at Cherbourg, France.[1][21]

In the 1977 film Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Cotopaxi is connected to the legend of the Bermuda Triangle, and is discovered in the Gobi Desert, presumably set there by extraterrestrial forces.[22][23]

• "Lloyd's Posts Cotopaxi as 'Missing'". The New York Times, January 7, 1926.
• "Efforts to Locate Missing Ship Fail". The Washington Post, December 6, 1925.
• "Lighthouse Keepers Seek Missing Ship". The Washington Post, December 7, 1925.
• "53 on Missing Craft Are Reported Saved". The Washington Post, December 13, 1925.
• "Bermuda Triangle: Ship Reappears 90 Years After Going Missing", May 12, 2015 (Snopes: False.)