USS Valcour (AVP-55) - Collision With SS Thomas Tracy 14 May 1951

Collision With SS Thomas Tracy 14 May 1951

On the morning of 14 May 1951, two months after she returned to Norfolk from her second Middle East tour, Valcour headed out to sea for independent ship exercises. While passing the collier SS Thomas Tracy off Cape Henry, Virginia, she suffered a steering casualty and power failure. As she veered sharply across the path of the oncoming collier, Valcour sounded warning signals. Thomas Tracy attempted to make an emergency turn to starboard but her bow soon plowed into Valcour's starboard side, rupturing an aviation gasoline fuel tank. An intense fire soon broke out aboard Valcour and, fed by the high-test aviation gasoline, spread rapidly. To make matters worse, water began flooding into Valcour's ruptured hull. Although fire and rescue parties on board valcour went to work immediately, the gasoline-fed inferno forced many of Valcour's crew to leap overboard into the swirling currents of Hampton Roads to escape the flames that soon enveloped Valcour's starboard side. The situation at that point looked so severe that Valcour's commanding officer, Captain Eugene Tatom, gave the order to abandon ship.

Thomas Tracy, meanwhile, fared better. Fires aboard Thomas Tracy were confined largely to the forward hold and her crew suffered no injuries. She managed to return to Newport News, Virginia, with her cargo, 10,000 tons of coal, intact. Valcour, on the other hand, became the object of exhaustive salvage operations. Rescue ships, including the submarine rescue ship USS Sunbird (ASR-15) and the United States Coast Guard tug USCGC Cherokee (WAT-165) sped to the scene of the tragedy. Fire and rescue parties, in some cases forced to use gas masks, succeeded in bringing the blaze under control but not before 11 men had died and 16 more had been injured. Another 25 were listed as "missing", and later were confirmed as dead.