HALSEY Ft. Pierce

The SS Halsey was built in 1920 by Bethlehem SB Corp, Alameda, California. She was 435 feet long, had a 56 foot beam, displaced 7,088 gross tons and was powered by a single screw, triple expansion engine. The Halsey was owned by American Petroleum Transport Corp., of New York. On May 6, 1942, the Halsey was en route from Corpus Christi, Texas to New York with a cargo of 80,000 barrels of fuel oil, gasoline and naphtha. The Halsey was struck amidships on her port side by a torpedo and sunk by Capitian Peter Cremer of the U-333. According to Crewmen in his book U-BOAT COMMANDER " the Halsey was silhouetted by the Jupiter Lighthouse". After the initial explosion the Halsey split in half and burst into flames. All 32 of her crew abandoned ship in two lifeboats, and were later towed to Gilbert Bar Coast Guard Station by a local fishing boat. The crew had been nearly asphyxiated by the toxic naphtha fumes. As a side note the U-333 (Fiedler) was sunk in July of 1944, by the HMS Starling off Scilly Isles.

According to diver Joe Roberts, the Halsey sits on a sand bottom in 65 feet of water, approximately three miles apart and 13 miles from Ft. Pierce Inlet. Divers will hit a maximum depth of 85 feet in the wash out around the wreck. The wreck is broken into three sections. The bow and stern are upright while the mid section is upside down. The site is also known as Two Freighters and Southeast Wreck.

According to Craig Swavely, there is a small landing craft inshore from the Halsey in 35 feet of water, and in between the Halsey and the Amazone are the remains of a crane and four barges. The crane and barges were in the process of salvaging the Halsey when they got caught in a storm and sunk.

Photo: The Halsey sinks after being struck amidships by a torpedo. Photo courtesy The Mariners Museum, Newport News, Virginia.

Basic shipwreck information and images for this section of this site was taken with permission from the book Florida Shipwrecks by Daniel Berg. You are invited to submit your shipwreck related articles, images and information. As long as the text, photographs, sketches etc are of professional quality we will showcase them. Full credit will be provide and a same page link to your web site can be arranged.