Deadliest Florida maritime incident of WWII off Jupiter

Gulfland burning off Jupiter 1943
Florida State Archives/Florida Memory

 

By Jane Feehan

From 1942 to 1943, German U-boats sank more than 600 merchant ships off the U.S. East Coast. According to writer and Florida-during-World War II historian Eliot Kleinberg, 16 ships were sunk during the war off Florida between Cocoa Beach and Boca Raton.

The Florida maritime incident during the war that claimed the most lives, however, did not involve a U-boat.

Eighty-eight of 116 crewmen perished when two tankers collided off Jupiter Inlet October 20, 1943. The ships were running in opposite directions off Jupiter’s coastal bulge with lights out under war conditions. The Gulf Belle, emptied of cargo, and the Gulfland, heavy with a shipment of high octane fuel, ran into each other without warning; collision was followed by a fiery explosion seen from land.

Gulfland towed to Hobe Sound and sank
Florida State Archives/Florida Memory 

The Coast Guard Temporary Reserve, with its flotilla of cabin cruisers and fishing boats, responded to the emergency and saved 28 from both ships. A small dog was rescued from an engine room of one of tankers.  The Gulf Belle was towed into port where bodies of the crew were removed. The Gulfland burned for weeks in Hobe Sound and then sank.

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Sources:

Palm Beach Post, Oct. 24, 1943

Palm Beach Post, Apr. 23, 1944.

Tags: Maritime incident, Florida in WWII, Jupiter maritime incident, Jupiter history