Casualty News – Page 405 – Professional Mariner

28 Feb

Eleven killed when charter boat capsizes on Oregon coast

Professional Mariner StaffCasualty News

Taki-Tooo, a 35-foot charter fishing boat, was struck by a wave and rolled over on the Tillamook Bar on the north Oregon coast in mid June, drowning 11 of the 19 people onboard. A Coast Guard 47-foot lifeboat was on the scene within minutes, but the charter boat, passengers and crew were quickly swept around the north jetty into the…

28 Feb

Tanker carrying ethanol explodes, then sinks off Virginia, claiming 21 lives; six rescued

Professional Mariner StaffCasualty News

The chemical tanker Bow Mariner, en route from the New York area to Texas, exploded and sank 50 miles off the Virginia coast at 1805 on Feb. 28, killing 21 crewmembers. A team from U.S. Coast Guard Air Station Elizabeth City, N.C., in an HH-60 Jayhawk helicopter, made a dangerous nighttime rescue of six of the crew who were in…

28 Feb

New cruise ship with troubled history sinks at German shipyard

Professional Mariner StaffCasualty News

The Dutch salvage company Smit is working to refloat the 72,000-gt cruise ship Pride of America, after the vessel sank at its dock at Lloyd Werft Bremerhaven GmbH shipyard in Germany on Jan. 14. Pride of America rests on its bottom at Lloyd Werft's shipyard in Bremerhaven, Germany. The Smit barge Giant 2 helped to stabilize the ship as salvage…

28 Feb

Five tourists killed when high winds overturn pontoon water taxi in Baltimore Inner Harbor

Professional Mariner StaffCasualty News

Five tourists died March 6 when a fast-moving cold front packing 50-mile-an-hour winds capsized a water taxi that was ferrying them around Baltimore's historic Inner Harbor. The overturned water taxi sits at a dock after the accident. The boat was flipped by winds exceeding 50 miles per hour. Image Credit: John Sancken Photos Lady D, a 36-foot two-ton pontoon…

28 Feb

Fuel barge pokes a hole in a tanker, spilling 25,000 gallons of oil in a Texas river

Professional Mariner StaffCasualty News

An estimated 25,200 gallons of No. 6 oil spilled in the Neches River near Port Arthur, Texas, when fuel barge Buffalo 405 struck and pierced the hull of the 528-foot Danish oil tanker Torm Mary during a fueling operation on Aug. 2, at about 0020. Booms surround Torm Mary and San Tomas after the tanker and tug were involved in…

28 Feb

New Alaska high-speed ferry strikes mooring dolphin when departing Skagway

Professional Mariner StaffCasualty News

The Alaska Marine Highway System ferry Fairweather rubbed against the mooring lines of a nearby cruise ship and struck a mooring dolphin while departing Skagway, Alaska, on Sept. 21. Fairweather was delivered to the Alaska Marine Highway System in March 2004. Since going into service, the ferry has been operating on just three engines. The fourth has been inoperative because…

28 Feb

Eight crew killed by steam-boiler explosion aboard Norway

Professional Mariner StaffCasualty News

A steam-boiler explosion aboard the 1,035-foot SS Norway claimed eight lives and injured 19 on May 25. The incident occurred while the ship was docked in the Port of Miami after having just completed a weeklong Caribbean cruise. There were 2,135 passengers and 911 crew aboard at the time. All of the passengers were evacuated without injury. The explosion not…

28 Feb

Washington state ferry hits a marked rock

Professional Mariner StaffCasualty News

Officials from Washington State Ferries are investigating the grounding of the 2,477-gt, double-ended ferry Sealth, which struck Reid Rock off San Juan Island on Dec. 24, 2004. Sealth was leaving Friday Harbor on San Juan Island, heading to Anacortes, Wash., when it struck the rock at about 2015, about 1 mile northeast of Brown Island, in the San Juan Channel.…

28 Feb

Tanker spills xylene in Mississippi after colliding with barges

Professional Mariner StaffCasualty News

A chemical tanker attempting to pass a towboat pushing 38 barges on the lower Mississippi River on April 25 struck one of the barges, resulting in a gash in the tanker's hull that allowed 42,000 gallons of xylene to spill into the river. The collision occurred in darkness at 0030, as the Norwegian-flagged Bow Lion, a 549-foot-long chemical tanker, struck…

28 Feb

Alaska tour boat evacuated after holing hull on a rock

Professional Mariner StaffCasualty News

The tour boat Star of the Northwest struck a submerged object and began taking on water in Resurrection Bay, Alaska, on July 25, 2004, forcing the evacuation of the 161 people aboard. Passengers wearing life vests line the rails of Star of the Northwest, while awaiting their transfer to Great Land. Two of the vessel's five watertight compartments flooded. …