From Southern Living "WW II cargo from sunken German warship washing up in Texas nearly 80 years Later" by Meghan Overdeep.
Mysterious rubber bales have been washing ashore at Texas' Padre Island and the Padre Island National Seashore has gone to Facebook to explain the surprising origin of the objects. They have been appearing on Gulf beaches since 2020. And, they come from a German ship sunk by the United States off Brail's coast during World War II.
Bales like these have also washed up on Brazil's beaches.
In January 1944, the German ship SS Rio Grande, a blockade runner, was carrying a load of much-needed materials including tin, copper, cobalt and crude rubber bales when it was spotted by the USS Omaha (CL-4) and USS Jouett (DD-396) off the coast of Brazil.
Realizing that they had been spotted, the crew of the Rio Grande abandoned ship and its cargo after purposefully scuttling the ship to prevent its capture. The two American ships opened fire on it until it sank.
So, how did those nearly 200-pound bales of rubber make their war to American waters?
The answer is that the Rio Grande has started to break up and the bales rose to the surface and into the North Brazil current. From there, the bales have stayed afloat in a series of northbound currents along the coasts of South and Central America, around the Yucatan and then finally into the Gulf of Mexico.
German blockade runners? Yep.
Where Ya Been? --GreGen
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