Precedent
Nearly 20 years prior to the loss of the Marine Sulphur Queen, the United States General Accounting Office published a report titled TO INQUIRE INTO THE DESIGN METHODS OF CONSTRUCTION OF WELDED STEEL MERCHANT VESSELS, 15 July 1946, which was essentially a report of concern over civilian merchant ships, specifically T2 tankers, fracturing amidships at the keel. Even during World War II, the federal government was concerned over the large number of merchant ship casualties not resulting from combat, and investigation centered on possible shoddy construction.
A sister ship, SS Sylvia L. Ossa, went down in heavy seas east of Bermuda on 15 October 1976; all that was recovered was debris and a lifeboat in which the quick-release mechanism was still intact.
Read more about this topic: SS Marine Sulphur Queen
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