Compromised hull and deck plating and conduits connecting bulkheads led to the sinking of the 60-foot towing vessel Jacqueline A off the South Carolina coast in August 2023, according to a recent National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) report.
“A lack of watertight integrity due to the poor material condition of the vessel’s bulwarks and main deck plating, which allowed water to ingress through wastage holes into the lazarette — and unsealed penetrations in transverse bulkheads — led to progressive flooding forward into the engine room,” the NTSB concluded, adding that Jacqueline A’s bilge alarm system was inadequate.
On Aug. 8, 2023, Jacqueline A was en route from Virginia to a Louisiana shipyard for repairs to bring it into compliance with towing vessel regulations. Upon entering the Atlantic Ocean via the Cape Fear River inlet channel in North Carolina, 4-foot seas began washing over Jacqueline A’s aft deck. “The sea was busting over the sides,” the tug’s unidentified captain told investigators. Unbeknownst to the crew, seawater entered the tug through unseen wastage holes, some of which were located inside voids formed by enclosed bulwark framing on the main deck.
Jacqueline A began listing to port, and the crew found the main deck was immersed in water up to the back of the deckhouse. Water was in the engine room, flowing through wire runs that connected the engine room and lazarette — but no bilge alarms had sounded. Investigators found no high-water level sensor in the lazarette.
The crew started bilge pumps, but shortly after, the vessel’s generator and one of its two engines shut down, the NTSB report said. “It was just happening so fast,” the captain recalled. Jacqueline A sank stern first, landing on the ocean floor more than 30 feet below the surface, while the bow remained above water. The three-person delivery crew was rescued by local agencies. Less than two hours after the list was first identified, the vessel had fully sunk. Approximately 5,000 gallons of diesel fuel on board leaked into the sea.
Salvors raised Jacqueline A on Aug. 21, 2023, and towed it to a shipyard. The vessel valued at $660,000 was determined to be a constructive total loss, the report said.
A commercial surveyor cut away the inboard plating of the bulwarks above the aft deck to examine the formerly enclosed volumes, or voids, in the bulwarks. “The surveyor found ‘significant deck plate wastage’ above the lazarette, with holes ranging in size from two to eight inches in diameter,” the NTSB report said. “The surveyor also discovered a hole on the stern hull plating (forming the aft bulkhead of the lazarette), about two inches below the main deck [which] had been hidden from exterior view by a rub rail on the stern.” U.S. Coast Guard and NTSB investigators also found that gaskets were missing from four weathertight doors on the deckhouse; three of these doors provided access to the main engine room.
“Given the vessel rolling, the reported seas of about 4 feet, and the combined freeboard and bulwark height of 4.5 feet along the aft deck and the stern, Jacqueline A was likely taking significant quantities of seawater over the bulwarks and deck,” the report said. “Under these conditions, seawater would have entered the bulwark voids through the wastage holes in the side plating and top and flowed down through the wastage holes in the main deck plating to the lazarette below.”
Jacqueline A also effectively had a “common bulkhead,” because two wire runs ran through the potable water tanks between the lazarette and engine room. “Penetrations of watertight bulkheads on vessels are normally sealed to prevent or slow progressive flooding. The wire runs that connected the lazarette to the engine room on the Jacqueline A were not sealed,” the NTSB report said. Once the lazarette filled, water poured into the engine room, and pumps could not keep up with the rate of flooding. “If the wire runs had been sealed, flooding would have been contained [to the lazarette] and the vessel likely would have remained afloat,” NTSB investigators determined.
Using computer models, the U.S. Coast Guard Marine Safety Center found the flooding rate began at 460 gallons per minute and increased to 1,100 gallons per minute within nine minutes. Once the wastage holes in the main deck above the lazarette were submerged, progressive flooding led to a sinking of Jacqueline A by the stern in nine to 16 minutes, the analysis found.
The NTSB identified both design and crew failures. “Inaccessible voids or difficult to reach pockets or crevices that are poorly ventilated and provide no access for maintenance pose a risk to vessels due to the potential for severe rusting. Corrosion can grow undetected,” the report said of Jacqueline A’s inboard plating on the bulwarks. The enclosed bulwark framing was scheduled to be removed once the vessel was in the shipyard.
The report also said that the crew should have conducted a thorough inspection of all spaces in the vessel, including the lazarette, before the voyage started — and regularly during the transit. “Had the crew conducted these inspections, they may have discovered water in the space and reconsidered the ability of the vessel to safely transit in the open ocean.”
According to the report, Jacqueline A was owned by Jackson Creek Marine. Phone and email contact information for the company could not be found.