SS Benwood in approximately to of water between Dixie Shoals (to the north) and French Reef (to the south) off of Key Largo, Florida. On April 10, 1942, the crew of the salvage tug "Willet" examined the wreck and determined that the keel of the "Benwood" was broken, and she was a total loss. However, her superstructure and cargo of phosphate rock appear to have been salvaged. Her stern section, once considered a hazard to navigation, seems to have been mostly obliterated by explosions of an unknown type. This salvaging on the ship over the years prompted John Pennekamp Coral Reef State
The World Without Us write something that people would read ... without minimizing the significance of what's going on, nor trivializing it, nor oversimplifying it." Richard Fortey compares the book to the works of Jared Diamond, Tim Flannery and E.O. Wilson, and writes that "The World Without Us" "narrowly avoids engendering the gloom-and-doom ennui that tends to engulf the poor reader after reading a catalogue of human rapacity". Mark Lynas in the "New Statesman" noted that "whereas most environmental books sag under the weight of their accumulated bad news, "The World Without Us" seems refreshingly positive". Demonstrating the optimism on the grim subject matter