密歇根新闻广播 船残骸发现者相信那就是阿尔戈号

The Coast Guard is investigating a leak from a 78-year-old tank barge¹ in western Lake Erie that's believed to be the Argo.

It sank in a storm in 1937.

Records show it was carrying about 100,000 gallons of crude oil when it sank. No one knows yet what exactly is still on board.

A dive team with the Cleveland Underwater Explorers reported a leak of an unknown substance from the barge on Friday night. The Coast Guard confirmed the leak on Saturday, and that triggered the emergency response.

A dive team is on Lake Erie today to try to find the leak.

Lieutenant² Greg Scweitzer is with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric³ Administration. He's helping⁴ the Coast Guard with its response effort.

"Whether or not they're successful in identifying the leak depends on whether or not the leak is still active. If it's not, it'll probably be very difficult for the divers⁵ to determine where that source is."

He says the wreck⁶ is covered in zebra mussels. That makes it hard to tell if there are cracks in the hull⁷.

The Coast Guard says there's no immediate⁸ risk to human health.

A trip out to the wreck site

I got a chance to visit the wreck site last week, before anyone discovered it was leaking.

Now, the Coast Guard has set up a restricted zone around the wreck site. But last Thursday, when I took a ride on Tom Kowalczk's shipwreck⁹ searching boat Dragonfly, the barge was not known to pose any kind of risk.

Kowalczk is the guy who found the tank barge in late August. He's retired¹⁰ from his career working for an automotive supplier. For the past 40 years, he's spent his weekends looking for shipwrecks¹¹.

He dials up the GPS coordinates¹³, we pull away from the marina at Lakeside, Ohio, and motor out into Lake Erie.

We're about an hour away from shore when he flips¹⁴ on the depth finder and points out a big peak that pops up on the screen.

"There it is right there – we just went over top of the wreck."

Kowalczk says the Argo was not built for the open waters of Lake Erie.

"As you can tell, we're rocking pretty good right now and you could imagine a tugboat pulling a fully¹⁵ loaded barge that only had two foot of freeboard. It was only sticking out of the water two feet and these huge, big waves crashing down on it and it didn't survive the storm," he says.

Kowalczk says he just happened upon this wreck. He was pulling a side scan sonar device that uses sound waves to map the bottom of the lake to look for a different shipwreck - a wooden sailing ship called the Lexington - and there it was, a steel oil tanker¹⁶ on the bottom of Lake Erie.

"All of the historic records for the sinking said that it was a considerable distance, many miles, five or six miles north of where we are right now. When it showed up on the screen I was really surprised, because I wasn't expecting to see anything here," he says.

CLUE looks for shipwrecks in cooperation with the National Museum of the Great Lakes, which provides funding for the fuel costs for the long days of methodical searching out on the lake.

Christopher Gillcrist is the museum's executive director. He says their shipwreck budget for Lake Erie runs about $3,000 to $4,000 a year.

"If the federal or state government hired a cultural resource management firm to go out and look for these wrecks¹², the cost would be tremendous. Here, we're doing it with volunteers, who are not paid, to go out and look with side scan sonar. It's a great model to go out and find shipwrecks," he says.

He says the story of the Argo's discovery will appear in the museum's journal Inland Seas this winter.

A fortuitous discovery

It turns out the Argo was already on a list of hazardous¹⁷ shipwrecks, but no one knew exactly where it was.

In 2013, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration published a risk assessment¹⁸ of shipwrecks that could be pollution hazards.

The Argo is considered the biggest pollution threat from a shipwreck in the Great Lakes.

Lisa Symons is with NOAA's Office of National Marine¹⁹ Sanctuaries²⁰. She wrote the risk assessment.

She says the barge's records indicate it was carrying close to 200,000 gallons of two petroleum²¹ products: a product called benzol, and crude oil.

"Our assumption is that it was half and half cargo²² but we have no way of knowing for sure."

She says they only modeled the pollution threat for the crude oil.

"We didn't model it for the benzol because we believe the benzol probably volatilized at the time of the incident. It's a much lighter²³ fuel and that would've been more likely to be able to get out of the wreck more easily," she says.

Symons says the barge had been loaded with its cargo not long before it sank. Now, everyone is wondering how much of that oil is still on the barge.

First, the Coast Guard has to investigate the leak. Then, it'll look into how to deal with what's still on board.

1 barge   

n.平底载货船，驳船

参考例句：

• The barge was loaded up with coal.那艘驳船装上了煤。
• Carrying goods by train costs nearly three times more than carrying them by barge.通过铁路运货的成本比驳船运货成本高出近3倍。

2 lieutenant   

n.陆军中尉，海军上尉；代理官员，副职官员

参考例句：

• He was promoted to be a lieutenant in the army.他被提升为陆军中尉。
• He prevailed on the lieutenant to send in a short note.他说动那个副官，递上了一张简短的便条进去。

3 atmospheric   

adj.大气的，空气的；大气层的；大气所引起的

参考例句：

• Sea surface temperatures and atmospheric circulation are strongly coupled.海洋表面温度与大气环流是密切相关的。
• Clouds return radiant energy to the surface primarily via the atmospheric window.云主要通过大气窗区向地表辐射能量。

4 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

5 divers   

adj.不同的；种种的

参考例句：

• He chose divers of them,who were asked to accompany him.他选择他们当中的几个人，要他们和他作伴。
• Two divers work together while a standby diver remains on the surface.两名潜水员协同工作，同时有一名候补潜水员留在水面上。

6 wreck   

n.失事，遇难；沉船；vt.(船等)失事，遇难

参考例句：

• Weather may have been a factor in the wreck.天气可能是造成这次失事的原因之一。
• No one can wreck the friendship between us.没有人能够破坏我们之间的友谊。

7 hull   

n.船身；(果、实等的)外壳；vt.去(谷物等)壳

参考例句：

• The outer surface of ship's hull is very hard.船体的外表面非常坚硬。
• The boat's hull has been staved in by the tremendous seas.小船壳让巨浪打穿了。

8 immediate   

adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的

参考例句：

• His immediate neighbours felt it their duty to call.他的近邻认为他们有责任去拜访。
• We declared ourselves for the immediate convocation of the meeting.我们主张立即召开这个会议。

9 shipwreck   

n.船舶失事，海难

参考例句：

• He walked away from the shipwreck.他船难中平安地脱险了。
• The shipwreck was a harrowing experience.那次船难是一个惨痛的经历。

10 retired   

adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的

参考例句：

• The old man retired to the country for rest.这位老人下乡休息去了。
• Many retired people take up gardening as a hobby.许多退休的人都以从事园艺为嗜好。

11 shipwrecks   

海难，船只失事( shipwreck的名词复数 )； 沉船

参考例句：

• Shipwrecks are apropos of nothing. 船只失事总是来得出人意料。
• There are many shipwrecks in these waters. 在这些海域多海难事件。

12 wrecks   

n.沉船( wreck的名词复数 )；（事故中）遭严重毁坏的汽车（或飞机等）；（身体或精神上）受到严重损伤的人；状况非常糟糕的车辆（或建筑物等）v.毁坏[毁灭]某物( wreck的第三人称单数 )；使（船舶）失事，使遇难，使下沉

参考例句：

• The shores are strewn with wrecks. 海岸上满布失事船只的残骸。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• My next care was to get together the wrecks of my fortune. 第二件我所关心的事就是集聚破产后的余财。 来自辞典例句

13 coordinates   

n.相配之衣物；坐标( coordinate的名词复数 )；（颜色协调的）配套服装；[复数]女套服；同等重要的人（或物）v.使协调，使调和( coordinate的第三人称单数 )；协调；协同；成为同等

参考例句：

• The town coordinates on this map are 695037. 该镇在这幅地图上的坐标是695037。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, headed by the Emergency Relief Coordinator, coordinates all UN emergency relief. 联合国人道主义事务协调厅在紧急救济协调员领导下，负责协调联合国的所有紧急救济工作。 来自《简明英汉词典》

14 flips   

轻弹( flip的第三人称单数 )； 按（开关）； 快速翻转； 急挥

参考例句：

• Larry flips on the TV while he is on vacation in Budapest. 赖瑞在布达佩斯渡假时，打开电视收看节目。
• He flips through a book before making a decision. 他在决定买下一本书前总要先草草翻阅一下。

15 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

16 tanker   

n.油轮

参考例句：

• The tanker took on 200,000 barrels of crude oil.油轮装载了二十万桶原油。
• Heavy seas had pounded the tanker into three parts.汹涌的巨浪把油轮撞成三载。

17 hazardous   

adj.(有)危险的，冒险的；碰运气的

参考例句：

• These conditions are very hazardous for shipping.这些情况对航海非常不利。
• Everybody said that it was a hazardous investment.大家都说那是一次危险的投资。

18 assessment   

n.评价；评估；对财产的估价，被估定的金额

参考例句：

• This is a very perceptive assessment of the situation.这是一个对该情况的极富洞察力的评价。
• What is your assessment of the situation?你对时局的看法如何？

19 marine   

adj.海的；海生的；航海的；海事的；n.水兵

参考例句：

• Marine creatures are those which live in the sea. 海洋生物是生存在海里的生物。
• When the war broke out,he volunteered for the Marine Corps.战争爆发时，他自愿参加了海军陆战队。

20 sanctuaries   

n.避难所( sanctuary的名词复数 )；庇护；圣所；庇护所

参考例句：

• The designation of special marine reserves and marine sanctuaries shall be subject to the State Council for approval. 海洋特别保护区、海上自然保护区的确定，须经国务院批准。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• After 1965 he acquiesced when they established sanctuaries on that soil. 1965年以后，他默认了他们在那块土地上建立庇护所。 来自辞典例句

21 petroleum   

n.原油，石油

参考例句：

• The Government of Iran advanced the price of petroleum last week.上星期伊朗政府提高了石油价格。
• The purpose of oil refinery is to refine crude petroleum.炼油厂的主要工作是提炼原油。

22 cargo   

n.(一只船或一架飞机运载的)货物

参考例句：

• The ship has a cargo of about 200 ton.这条船大约有200吨的货物。
• A lot of people discharged the cargo from a ship.许多人从船上卸下货物。

23 lighter   

n.打火机，点火器；驳船；v.用驳船运送；light的比较级

参考例句：

• The portrait was touched up so as to make it lighter.这张画经过润色，色调明朗了一些。
• The lighter works off the car battery.引燃器利用汽车蓄电池打火。