Golden Ray & SS Normandie

The last section of the car carrier Golden Ray has been removed from St. Simons Sound near Brunswick, Georgia, and is on its way to a scrapyard. The 656-foot car carrier was carrying 4,100 vehicles when it capsized in September 2019. The cost of the ship, cargo, and wreck removal totaled roughly one billion US dollars.

Commander Efren Lopez, US Coast Guard Federal On-Scene Coordinator, said that the salvage of the Golden Ray was “the largest wreck removal in US history,” in a briefing on Tuesday.  While the salvage was certainly massive, it is not clear that the removal was the “largest in US history.”

In February 1942, the SS Normandie, a 1,029-foot-long passenger liner, caught fire and capsized at Pier 88 at West 48th Street and the Hudson River. The liner was being converted into a troop carrier when the fire broke out.  The salvage took 17 months until the ship was refloated and towed to a dry dock in Brooklyn. It was ultimately declared to be a total loss and was scrapped in Newark beginning in 1946.  

How did the Normandie compare to the Golden Ray? According to the Coast Guard, the full load displacement of the Golden Ray was around 35,000 long tons when she capsized. In comparison, the SS Normandie‘s displacement was just over 68,000 long tons. It is likely that the SS Normandie was lighter at the time of the fire, but she would still be heavier than the Golden Ray.

The Normandie was also longer and wider than the Golden Ray and had a larger gross tonnage (a measure of ship volume not weight.)

So by any criteria, the removal of the wreck of the capsized SS Normandie was larger than the removal of the Golden Ray.

Thanks to Roger Eastman and Gerry Weinstoen for contributing to this post.