CaptFlyingDutchman
Contributor
The Sea Tiger did not go down with pirate treasure, or in the storm of the century, or attacked by kamikazes, this intentional wreck peacefully slipped underneath the waves. The history of how our simple Sea Tiger became a wreck is quite interesting. I found this 1999 article in the local newspaper.
On February, 1992 it was know as the Yun Fong Seong No. 303 when it was carrying 93 illegal Chinese immigrants. Harbor master was trying to hail the ship but there was no answer, just the vessel barreling to the pier. There was one harbor police officer to handle the 90 + illegal aliens. They did not resist.
The five crew members severed various prison terms in what immigration officials called Hawaii's largest seizure of illegal immigrates. The Justice Department seized the Yun Fong Seong No. 303 and sold it at auction in the first of several ownerships.
One guy bought it at auction for $1, took one look at it and then abandoned it. No one ever saw him again. The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society bought the ship for $40,000 in 1992 and planned to use it to harass and ram fishing vessels that lay drift nets. The Yun Fong Seong No. 303 was to be renamed UN Resolution 42/216, after the United Nation resolution that bans drift nets. The society's plan fell through and the Yun Fong Seong No. 303 ended up with a Vietnamese fisherman who renamed it the Sea Tiger.
He sold it in 1994 to a man who frustrated environmental and Coast Guard inspectors because the Sea Tiger kept leaking oil and fuel into Honolulu Harbor. With all the problems it lay still at Pier 40. The state was planning to tow the Sea Tiger 12 miles out to sea and drop it.
This was until Voyager Submarines bought it for $1. It took Voyager two years of paperwork and $250,000 in cleanup and preparation costs to get all the approvals from the state Department of Land and Natural Resources, health department, U.S. Coast Guard, and the Army Corp of Engineers. They spent $100,000 getting rid of the last 100 gallons of fuel and oil.
Does anyone else have any other stories or photos to add ?
On February, 1992 it was know as the Yun Fong Seong No. 303 when it was carrying 93 illegal Chinese immigrants. Harbor master was trying to hail the ship but there was no answer, just the vessel barreling to the pier. There was one harbor police officer to handle the 90 + illegal aliens. They did not resist.
The five crew members severed various prison terms in what immigration officials called Hawaii's largest seizure of illegal immigrates. The Justice Department seized the Yun Fong Seong No. 303 and sold it at auction in the first of several ownerships.
One guy bought it at auction for $1, took one look at it and then abandoned it. No one ever saw him again. The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society bought the ship for $40,000 in 1992 and planned to use it to harass and ram fishing vessels that lay drift nets. The Yun Fong Seong No. 303 was to be renamed UN Resolution 42/216, after the United Nation resolution that bans drift nets. The society's plan fell through and the Yun Fong Seong No. 303 ended up with a Vietnamese fisherman who renamed it the Sea Tiger.
He sold it in 1994 to a man who frustrated environmental and Coast Guard inspectors because the Sea Tiger kept leaking oil and fuel into Honolulu Harbor. With all the problems it lay still at Pier 40. The state was planning to tow the Sea Tiger 12 miles out to sea and drop it.
This was until Voyager Submarines bought it for $1. It took Voyager two years of paperwork and $250,000 in cleanup and preparation costs to get all the approvals from the state Department of Land and Natural Resources, health department, U.S. Coast Guard, and the Army Corp of Engineers. They spent $100,000 getting rid of the last 100 gallons of fuel and oil.
Does anyone else have any other stories or photos to add ?
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