Submersible visits wreck off San Luis Obispo County coast to gauge oil peril to coast

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• No oil found aboard sunken WWII tanker off Cambria coast

  No oil found aboard sunken WWII tanker off Cambria coast

  Tanker Montebello, sunk in December 1941, likely spilled its cargo years ago and poses no threat to the environment, officials say

• Sunken oil tanker’s spill risk focus of dives

  Sunken oil tanker’s spill risk focus of dives

  Starting Wednesday, a series of dives by a remotely operated vehicle may definitively determine the ecological threat posed by the S.S. Montebello, a World War II-era oil tanker that lies seven miles offshore from Cambria.

  The Coast Guard and state Department of Fish and Game have hired Seattle-based Global Diving and Salvage Inc. to use an innovative technique called hot tapping to take samples from the wreck’s 18 oil storage compartments.

  The operation is expected to last 10 days and poses some unprecedented challenges due to the depth of the wreck — 900 feet — and the amount of oil it contains — 3 million gallons, said state Sen. Sam Blakeslee, who has urged state and federal officials to investigate the wreck.

• Times Past: Montebello sinking was denied, then covered up

  Times Past: Montebello sinking was denied, then covered up

  After 70 years, the broken hull of the Union Oil tanker S.S. Montebello still rests on the sea bottom approximately 6 miles off San Simeon.

  On Dec. 22, 1941, the tanker loaded more than 3 million gallons of Santa Maria crude oil at the Union Oil wharf at Avila. The ship was scheduled to sail to Vancouver, British Columbia, to supply the needs of the West Coast, Alaska and Aleutian Islands defense effort.

  Fifteen days earlier, the Japanese Empire had attacked U.S. forces at Pearl Harbor without warning. There were reports of Japanese submarines shelling and torpedoing merchant ships along the California coast.

• On the sinking of Montebello

  On the sinking of Montebello

  In retrospect, the original skipper was right. The captain of the Union Oil tanker Montebello did not want to leave Port San Luis. Sixteen days after the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor, rumors were running wild. Blackout drills were being held up and down the coast and false reports of enemy aircraft were not uncommon. Sailors had heard of a submarine monitoring the coastline.

  The oil company gave the first mate the first command of his career and ordered the tanker to cruise north to deliver 3 million gallons of Santa Maria crude to Vancouver, British Columbia, where the vital war commodity was needed to fuel defense of the coast. Some accounts say the vessel also carried gasoline.

  Just before sunrise on Dec. 23, 1941, Imperial Japanese Navy submarine I-21 would press home its second attack of the day. The first attack had been a failure. The Richfield oil tanker Larry Doheney had been fired on about 3 a.m. as it maneuvered through Estero Bay just north of Morro Rock. Two or three torpedoes were fired (

• 11th victim found days after deadly crash on I-75

  11th victim found days after deadly crash on I-75

  A pickup truck involved in a deadly Florida interstate pileup was so badly burned and crushed that it took investigators more than two days to find a third body inside, authorities said Wednesday.