Debris Sighted in Plane Search For Tanker Missing Off Florida
By United Press International Jacksonville, Fla., Feb. 10 – A Navy patrol plane searching for the missing tanker Marine Sulphur Queen with 39 men and a cargo of molten sulphur reported today it had sighted debris and a "large amount of yellow substance" 200 miles east of here in the Atlantic.
The Coast Guard at Jacksonville Beach said the pilot had radioed that the debris consisted of sticks of wood, "several large white objects and a large amount of yellow substance."
The missing tanker had white superstructure, the Coast Guard said, but a spokesman would not speculate whether the wreckage might be that of the tanker, missing for a week, until a patrol boat had reached the scene.
A Coast Guard patrol boat, the Sweet Gum, was dispatched to the area. The 534-foot Sulphur Queen was carrying a large cargo of sulphur, kept in a liquid state at 265 degrees. The vessel left Beaumont, Tex., eight days ago and was due in Norfolk, Va., last Thursday.
The Sulphur Queen, a T-2 type tanker built during World War II, was last heard from a week ago tonight when a crew member sent a personal radio message. The last reported position of the ship placed her near Dry Tortugas in the Gulf of Mexico, just west of Key West, Fla.
The Coast Guard in New York disclosed early today that it had asked the State Department to make inquiries into rumors that the missing tanker might have gone to Cuba. In Washington, a State Department spokesman said it would take several days to obtain a report on any such inquiry.
New York Times, 11 Feb. 1963