The ship made famous in the book and film “The Perfect Storm” will be intentionally sunk off the New Jersey and Delaware coasts next week, assuming it doesn’t encounter any more storms. A spokesman for the Department of Environmental Protection said the Coast Guard ship Tamaroa will be sunk April 18th if weather allows. The vessel will grow an artificial reef near Cape May Point. The sinking was supposed to happen last year on the 25th anniversary of the famous storm, but it was held up by tests. Before being sunk, the ship had to be screened for potentially dangerous chemicals. In 1991, the Tamaroa was used to rescue the crews of a sailboat and a downed Air National Guard helicopter in waters off Massachusetts. The ship already had a decorated history as the Navy’s USS Zuni, towing crippled U.S. warships across the war-torn Pacific in World War II and aiding in the invasion of Iwo Jima. It was transferred to the Coast Guard shortly after the war and spent almost a half-century conducting search-and-rescue operations along the East Coast.
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