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Oil spill at Vigor Shipyards
While the USS 'Sampson', an Arleigh Burke-class Aegis guided-missile destroyer homeported at the Naval Station Everett, was being serviced at the Vigor Shipyards, a hose used to remove excess fuel from the ship malfunctioned on July 13, 2026, causing a diesel spill of approximately 2,500 gallons near the Seattle waterfront. Navy officials were working with shipyard contractors and spill response partners to resolve the issue quickly and responsibly. Most of the fuel has been recovered. Containment booms had been placed around the ship as a precaution before the spill. Crews were using skimmers to remove the fuel from the water. A small sheen of non-recoverable oil was spotted outside the boom on the afternoon of July 14, 2026, but was expected to evaporate quickly under the day’s warm weather conditions. The rest of the spill remained successfully contained. Hard boom containment and sorbents remained in place until the remaining oil sheen has been recovered, and the ship moved into dry dock. Cleanup crews have removed about 90% of the spill, according to the Washington State Department of Ecology. Recovery was ongoing. The Washington State Department of Ecology was coordinating with the U.S. Navy, U.S. Coast Guard Northwest and response contractors. The cause of the spill was under investigation. Report with photo: https://www.stripes.com/branches/navy/2026-07-16/diesel-spill-uss-sampson-cleanup-22284803.html
Destroyer intercepted and sank a smuggling boat
On June 22, 2025, the USS 'Sampson' intercepted a smuggling boat in the Eastern Pacific and captured 3.5 tonnes of cocaine, beingworth $58 million on the U.S. market, more than $120 million in Europe and upwards of $300 million in Australia, depending upon the final destination. Just past 5.30 p.m. a helicopter from the destroyer spotted a suspicious vessel at an undisclosed position in the Eastern Pacific. The crew launched a small boat with a team of officers from Sampson's embarked U.S. Coast Guard Law Enforcement Detachment (LEDET). The LEDET crew found three suspected drug smugglers aboard the vessel, all of whom said that they were foreign nationals. The packages aboard the vessel tested positive for cocaine, so the cargo and all three suspects were taken into custody aboard the Sampson. Their stateless vessel was later sunk as a hazard to navigation.
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