Operation CHASE
Operation CHASE (Cut Holes and Sink 'Em) was a United States Department of Defense program that involved the disposal of unwanted munitions at sea from May 1964 into the early 1970s.
The disposal program involved loading old munitions onto ships which were then slated to be scuttled once they were up to 250 miles off shore. While most of the sinkings involved ships loaded with conventional weapons there were four which involved chemical weapons. The chemical weapons disposal site was a three mile (5 km) area of the Atlantic Ocean between the coast of the U.S. state of Florida and the Bahamas. The CHASE program was pre-dated by United States Army disposal of 8000 tons of mustard and lewisite chemical warfare gas aboard the scuttled SS William C. Ralston in April 1958. These ships were sunk by having Explosive Ordnance Demolition (EOD) teams open sea cocks on the ship after arrival at the disposal point. The typical Liberty ship sank about three hours after the seacocks were opened.
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