‘Gooey’ Oil Spill Hits Beaches

A “gooey, sloppy mess” of black fuel oil seeping from a crippled freighter washed up along 17 miles of Atlantic beaches today, soaking sea gulls and other birds.

Navy divers slipped beneath choppy waters at mid-morning searching for a way to stem the flow of oil from the freighter Fern Passett, which ran aground with a cargo of 2,100 Volkswagens. Up to 200,000 gallons of oil might have spilled near the mouth of the St. John’s River when the 541-foot freighter ran aground about 8 p.m. Thursday, Coast Guard spokesman Lt. John Wigger estimated.