OLYMPIA, Wash. — In November, KIRO 7 took you into the murky water of Quartermaster Harbor to show you the Murph.
The sunken hulk, sitting in about 35 feet of water, was once a Navy tugboat called the Wingina, built in 1944. After four decades, the Wingina was sold off, and in 2007, sent to the bottom of the harbor and left there to rot.
“It’s been at the bottom for several years,” said Melissa Ferris of the State Department of Natural Resources. “We’re not sure what’s left onboard as far as asbestos and fuels and things like that.”
Getting rid of a wreck like the Murph costs you hundreds of thousands of dollars. State officials believed there was no way to recover that cost because they thought the owner, Richard Gosney, was dead. It turns out he's still very much alive.
KIRO 7 tracked Gosney to a home in Olympia. A woman who answered said Gosney was not around and that he'd sold the Murph years ago. State officials want to find him because by law, Gosney can be held accountable for the cost of raising and scrapping the old tugboat.
“It could be hundreds of thousands,” said Ferris.
That was before the Murph was raised from the water in November at a cost of nearly $700,000. Washington state taxpayers are still on the hook for that because Gosney went into hiding. Efforts by the DNR and State Department of Ecology to locate him and sue to recover the money are still underway.
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