The following is the text of a press release issued by the U.S. Coast Guard:
(BALTIMORE) — The Coast Guard retrieved the aground barge Friday afternoon, that broke free from a Coast Guard cutter during a storm Wednesday. The crew aboard the Coast Guard Cutter Sledge, a construction tender homeported in Baltimore, retrieved the barge and is towing it to the Coast Guard Yard to be inspected and put back into service.
A crew from the Coast Guard Cutter William Tate and a crew from Coast Guard Aids to Navigation Team Baltimore utilized small boats to assist the Sledge in the rigging of the tow.
The 100-foot barge was alongside the Coast Guard Cutter James Rankin that was anchored approximately three miles north of the Chester River when it broke free at approximately 10 p.m. and drifted toward Winchester Creek and Walsey Creek near Queenstown.
No one was injured during the incident. The barge is carrying 20 seasonal buoys.
