Brunswick-area business owners sue over ‘lost income’ during Golden Ray cleanup

BRUNSWICK, Ga. — For two years, the capsized Golden Ray cargo ship and its 4,300 cars on board sat deteriorating and leaking fuel and car parts into the St. Simons Sound.

Action News Jax documented the grueling cleanup process as workers cut the ship into sections to be disassembled and carried away.

“Not that it was good, but it was good for business,” Southern Retreat RV Park owner Jo Collins said. “It helped drive our business in our slower months when we don’t have a whole lot of people in the park.”

Collins says the wreck attracted lots of tourists — so much that sales increased by more than 20%.

That success has allowed the business to expand from accommodating 160 RVs to accommodating 580.

Last May, Action News Jax showed you when the ship caught fire while salvage workers were making a cut; it burned for several hours.

“The workers that came in to tear it apart and dispose of it and all of that, we were lucky enough to get a few of those workers here, and they stayed here for a couple of years,” Collins said.

While places like Southern Retreat RV Park say the wreck helped businesses, it hurt businesses in the fishing and shrimping industries.

More than 20 business owners in the area are suing the salvage companies and others involved with the Golden Ray.

According to the lawsuit, they want the defendants to restore the St. Simons Sound and surrounding waters and marshland, and to pay for lost income during the time the wreckage was there.

In the lawsuit, the businesses accuse the defendants of negligence under general maritime law, being a public nuisance and partaking in “ultrahazardous activity.”

As for Collins: She doesn’t feel a lawsuit is necessary.

“I think people just jump on the sue wagon any time they can.”

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