Hunting The Nuke - Texas City Photos

DID WE FIND THE NUKE?
TEXAS CITY PHOTOS

by Ken Welch in Houston

(many photos - be patient)

When I became aware of the Easter nuke conspiracy an immediate temptation was to drive down to the western bay shore and hunt for it. I love the Galveston Bay area, and visit it often although I have never spent much time around Texas City. I should be able to find my way around and, I thought, at least come up with a beginning list of ships docked in the area. Two factors argued against this. First, we had few details to begin with, and had no idea when the bomb was set to go off. Sure didn't seem like a good time for a visit. Second, it could easily be said that I should stick to what I did best, and allow others more suited to on-the-ground snooping, and more familiar with port facilities, to look for the ship. Unfortunately, attempting to involve anyone else before we went public was a huge security risk.

Toward the end of February there was enough information to make strong assumptions the nuke was in or around the port of Texas City, and of course the Easter target date had been revealed multiple times. I could not restrain my curiosity any longer and drove to the Texas City area on Sunday, the 26th of February. I took a commercial "key map" of the area, my camera, and just for good measure a woman who is a noted Intuitive. She thought the nuke idea was nuts, by the way, but couldn't resist the fun of a day-trip near the water. As we entered Texas City from the highway, however, she began to frown. "You're right," she said, "there's something here."

Although I've lived in Houston for years, and visited most bay area communities many times, I had never actually been in Texas City itself, an industrial area not usually on anyone's "fun to visit" list. Through the afternoon I crisscrossed the area repeatedly, trying every road on the map that might provide an entrance to the port area or a even a view of it's layout. The "key map" showed the port as completely blank. No roads or anything. I have no idea why.

My companion was also unfamiliar with the area and only I knew where we were on the map. I asked her if she could visualize the nuke, telling her that our sources had twice used the word "cylinder". She said no, all she could get was the feeling of a localized, or pinpoint source of evil. She could not pick up what sort of place it was in, nearby buildings or landmarks, colors, and so on. Only it's threatening presence nearby.

Finally, I asked her if there was any sense of direction to the feeling of danger. "Oh sure," she said, raising her arm and pointing, "It's that way".

At the time we were driving down a street in Texas City itself. I checked the map, which I was holding on my lap, and saw that she was pointing directly toward the outer port area which so far we had not seen. I tested her on this a number of times that afternoon. No matter where we were, after seeming to drive in circles or breezing down a nearby highway, the direction she pointed to, after I found our own location on the map, always pointed to the same place. On the other hand, when I asked her to point in the direction of a place we had been, like the park near the base of the long jetty going out into the bay, she usually had no idea.

My goal was to take pictures of ships docked in the port, getting their names in the photo, as a record that could be examined later. Speech reversals had revealed hundreds of names (as they often do), with no clue as to which one might be the name of the bomb ship. Working from the list had turned out to be a waste time. Working backwards, ie., seeing if a known ship name was contained in the material might pay off. I was soon to discover this was impossible. The port is not a public facility and there was apparently no way to get in.

Photo 1. This is the main "land" entrance to the port. On that Sunday afternoon there was no activity here at all, although the refinery was running and ships were moving in and out of the oil terminal area. As far as I can tell, everything moving through the port goes by ship, rail, or pipeline. As you can see, large signs at the entrance don't mince words: "Restricted Area - Do Not Enter".

Photo 2. About a hundred yards or so north from the main entrance is a spot where you can pull off the road and see the refinery that occupies the northern portion of the grounds. I don't know what it produces. These things are scattered all over the bay area and many seem much larger. I assume the big white pipeline, still above ground at this point, carries the oil from the terminal to destinations elsewhere.

MAP. The two shots above were taken from area 1 on the map, camera pointed east. Eventually I realized I was never going to get the pictures of individual ships that I wanted, so we decided to play tourist instead, driving up to the park at 7th Avenue, and then out on the long jetty, a popular spot for tourists and fishermen.

Photo 3. From point 2, looking southwest, only a few storage tanks are visible with the refinery in the distance. However, driving only a short distance out on the jetty (point 3) provided a good view of the oil terminal from about a mile across the water.

Photo 4. From point 3. I discover a strategic error - the afternoon sun is against me and details are hard to see. Can you see the yellow tanker to the left of the orange one? With eyes alone in the bad light I couldn't see this one at all.

Photos 5,6. Even from a mile away the big orange tanker looks impressive. I run my 10X zoom all the way out to see if I can capture the ship's name from her bow. Only in the maximum magnification do I see the bow of the yellow tanker to the left. The orange one is Eagle Tacoma. She's obviously not the ship I want because the oil terminal is busy and she will surely be gone in a matter of hours.

Photo 7. Tourist Photos. From the same spot (Point 3) I turn my camera to the left (south) and snap this old dock attached to the jetty. It looks great when you blow it up. Notice in the distance you can see the Galveston skyline. Those are not very tall buildings and it's closer than you might think. Several conspirators were concerned about a Tsunami effect. We next turned and crossed the road behind us to the bay side, looking eastward.

Photo 8. Point 3, East or bay side of the jetty. I've been haunted by the feeling I'm taking the first batch of a set of "before and after" pictures. If the nuke goes off, these seabirds will never know what happened.

Photo 9. From any point on the bay you can always see one or two ships on their way to or from the Houston ship channel to the north. Today is no exception and this one is returning empty from discharging her cargo. Looks like a tanker to me, because the deck appears to be strewn with pipes (see photo 6 above and 10 below). However, they all look pretty much the same to me, except for the big container ships and car carriers.

At this point I get the last tip of the day from my psychic hot line. "It's on a ship like that one," she says.

This is actually the first time she has confirmed that the evil she senses is indeed on a ship. Does she mean the orange and black color scheme, I ask. No, although the feeling of darkness she senses might include a dark hull. The identification seems to come from the overall shape, the size which is not so large, and a sense that the ship is older, a tired workhorse nearing the end of its service life barring major repairs and upgrades. She feels it is nearby, yet for some reason we are overlooking it or simply can't see it. Interestingly, as doubt creeps in her directional sense disappears.

Frustrating news to add to a frustrating day.

Photo 10. We returned to the car and I drove slowly southward along the jetty. I hadn't gone far, when I glanced to the left and saw this tanker moving right along, coming out of the port and heading toward Galveston. I was dumfounded. It is not the yellow tanker I saw earlier, which is still tied up in a later picture. Where did it come from? There was no other vessel in sight when I was photographing the terminal area!

I immediately pulled over, now at point 4 on the map above and took it's picture. I'm not sure exactly why, but I knew I wanted to go over previous shots (eg. #4) when I could put them on the screen and try to figure out how I had missed it. Where was it hiding?

Photo 11. Standing at Point 4 after the Stolt Tanker had passed, I began to see what I had not grasped before. On the right side, from this viewpoint, you can finally see that there is an entrance here that visually blurs into the background structures when viewed from further north. Ships go in, they turn left, they disappear.

On the map up above, provided by MapQuest, you can understand the layout. On the key map I was carrying with me the port is blank, a private area with no details at all. On that day, standing on the jetty, all I knew was that I had no idea at all how many ships might be in there.

Photo 12. Since we had never been there, we drove on down the jetty, past point 5, to its very end. Must be several miles at least. From there you are looking at the gap that leads straight out to the gulf, with Galveston off to your right. Realize that this is a random time on a Sunday afternoon and there are four large vessels in motion here. At that point it seemed to me that, although we knew the bomb ship was nearby, it was unlikely we would ever be able to distinguish it from all the others.

I have to admit I was never really strong on locating the ship myself. It would have been really satisfying but then what could we do if we found it? This was a conspiracy that encompassed the very highest levels of the U.S. Government. Certainly the thing would be watched, and anyone getting too close would probably be shot. You couldn't even call the Sheriff. If he didn't just hang up on you he would simply call Homeland Security. So the real issue was what would we do if we found it? My feeling was that publicizing the conspiracy was the only workable choice for stopping it, and I was already committed to doing that. Still, it sure would be nice to know, wouldn't it?

Now scroll back up to Photo 11, the one that shows the "hidden" port entrance on the right. Look to the left. What is that big white thing? No, I didn't notice it either. Snuggled in under two large construction cranes, it's a ship. Do you remember how we stood there on the jetty, "knowing" that the ship was nearby but for some reason we just weren't seeing it?

Now check this out:

You'll recall that it was a warning about a possible nuclear attack on Houston in late January from a "Captain May" that kicked off my personal investigation of the subject. On Good Friday a carefully worded e-mail arrived from Jon, a member of May's network near Texas City, who seemed like a pretty good guy.

Just wanted to give you a heads up on what I have found out about a possible ship being docked since January. I got this from a source (who will remain nameless), that there indeed is a ship that has been docked at the Budworth Bond ship yard which is right beside the BP docks. The person said that (he/she) doesn't remember how long its been sitting there but it is a small one being repaired. I tried to glean more info from this person but (he/she) had to take care of her mother. I did ask that (he/she) keep an eye open and alert me of anything. I also have friends who work out there and some in contract security who have been keeping an eye out. They also say that it is the only one that has just been sitting there.

I also learned that Jon was getting out of Dodge - at least for the Easter weekend.

I quickly responded that it would be extremely valuable to get the NAME of the vessel. As mentioned elsewhere, there was a good chance we had it already but just didn't recognized it. Jon replied that he would ask his "person" if they could find out. However, I've never heard another word.

I also received a copy the following day of a message sent by another local person in that network contributing additional information.

-- just thought I'd let you know a little bit more about Bloodworth Bond. It is located next to (or on the south side of) BP docks 40/41. I'm not denying this could be a possibility, but I worked at BP docks for years and there was always boats (large & small) that would be docked at Bloodworth's for months on end waiting for repair.

Yes, I noticed the difference in the names of the shipyard.

The most important identifying mark of the bomb ship was that it had entered Galveston Bay late in January and been tied up somewhere ever since. So if our reasoning that the highest probability location was the port of Texas City, then a ship docked there since January, in plain sight, was the highest probability vessel. So I went back to the photos you see above and there she is.

Photo 13. We are looking at the front of the vessel's superstructure. This means it is facing us, ie. the ship is pointed east, at a point further south of us as we stood on the jetty near point 4 on the map. The map shows an odd-shaped slot south of the two slots that belong to the oil terminal. From the angles, the ship is in that slot and the location is the same as described for the shipyard.

Photo 14. So this is my candidate for the Easter Surprise nuke ship. The one we knew was nearby but just couldn't see. It's probably sitting there still, with the owners wondering how they will handle the bill for lengthy repairs they never expected to pay for. You may recall from the report that Fed Chairman Bernanke had considerable to say, unconsciously of course, about the details of the conspiracy. While several said the nuke was hidden, Bernanke was the one that said it was hidden near a lifeboat. So is that the lifeboat, on the side facing the oil terminal? Sure would be nice to know if this really is the one. But all I can say is that you must look at photos and then listen to your feelings. Because you know there is no way in this world we will ever know for sure.

Ken Welch
Houston