Tugboat captains usually provide their vital service to the maritime industry in obscurity. But Capt. Mike Vinik became something of a celebrity while leading SS United States in what is arguably history’s most visible and important towing operation. Vinik, 45, is owner and president of Vinik Marine Inc., which operates four tugs out of Port Redding, N.J., and has its…
The two largest ferry operators in the United States have been recruiting from within their own ranks and from within their own communities to build a new mariner workforce. Both NYC Ferry, one of several maritime operators in the New York Metro Area, and Washington State Ferries (WSF) have fostered homegrown captains and crew and expanded their workforces to meet…
With a blizzard bearing down on Central Oregon, crewmembers repositioned the tour boat Columbia Gorge and added mooring lines and a chain to keep it safe during the storm. The steel-hulled sternwheeler remained in place for two days of heavy weather before breaking free at about 0815 on Jan. 13, 2024, and drifting down the Columbia River. The 144-foot vessel…
Not long after the nearly 103-foot-long tug Nickelena passed under the Mackinac Bridge in Michigan at around 0200, the crew shined a spotlight off the stern to examine their tow — a 160-foot-tall crawler crane atop a barge. Searching the darkness some 500 feet behind them, the spotlight showed the crane’s boom bent completely backwards, collapsed over the crane body…
A small fire on a passenger vessel resulting from onboard hospitality service could have been contained had a trained marine crewmember been aboard, according to a report by federal investigators. No injuries or pollution were reported, but damage to the vessel was estimated at $3.1 million. The 192-foot, three-deck Spirit of Boston, operated by City Cruises US, hosted 429 passengers — along with 35 crewmembers and…
A cargo vessel was destroyed when it ran aground following an anchor chain failure in the Caribbean Sea. Bonnie G was waiting out poor weather about one mile south of St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, on Oct. 4, 2023, when the anchor chain broke and the vessel began to drift. As the captain tried to navigate away from shore, he…
A stacking error based on incorrect cargo weights caused the loss of 23 shipping containers and damage to several more aboard the U.S.-flagged cargo vessel President Eisenhower off the California coast last year, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said in a report. None of the 23 containers were recovered, and 10 other containers were damaged, with losses estimated to…
You’d never know the California Maritime Academy has been dealing with chronically low enrollment based on the number of people attending an open house in mid-February. On a chilly gray morning, prospective students and their parents shuffled around the school’s 92-acre Vallejo, Calif., campus tucked against the Carquinez Strait on San Francisco Bay. Young people collected pamphlets and swag branded with the “Keelhauler”…
My first job in the merchant marine was at Crowley Maritime, working out of their Long Beach office. Assigned to the tug Saturn, we were heading back to the company’s home berth at pier 48. After we were secured, Igor, the mate on the vessel, told me to climb up to the dock and get the supplies and tools he’d…