Professional Mariner – February 2024 – Page 2

Loss of steering caused Mississippi barge grounding

Marquette Warrior was downbound on the Lower Mississippi River with 35 barges in tow when the interior lights started flickering. Five minutes later, at about 12:10 pm on November 21, 2021, the vessel lost its steering around a river bend near Greenville, Ms. The pilot helming the 166-foot, 8,000-hp towboat backed on the engines to slow down in the fast-moving…

NTSB issues report on 2022 liftboat listing

The National Transportation Safety Board has issued its report on the investigation into the listing of an elevated liftboat caused by a November 2022 storm with gale-force winds and high waves in the Gulf of Mexico. The incident occurred at 12:55 pm and involved the L/B Robert, which was stationed alongside an oil platform near South Marsh Island Block 137, about 80 miles southeast of…

Despite the challenges, U.S. inland waterways continue to bustle

America’s inland waterways continue to wrestle with challenges, but the long-term future looks bright as a chorus of business, environmental, and government voices increasingly sing the praises of those who confront the hazards of inland navigation. Most notably, of course, frustratingly chronic drought conditions that showcase the limits of human systems designed to sustain navigation – particularly navigation on…

Proposal to operate U.S.- flag vessels with foreign crews blasted

“Egregious” and “irresponsible” is how a consortium of American labor unions, including the Maritime Trades Department, AFL-CIO, is labelling a proposal to create a second level of U.S.-flagged vessels that would be operated by foreign crews. Such a move, “would outsource American maritime jobs, disregard America’s national security requirements and waste taxpayer dollars,” they charged in a statement countering a…

New York, New Jersey offshore wind projects axed

Equinor and bp, the developers behind the giant Empire Wind 2 offshore wind project, and the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority have reached an agreement to terminate the Offshore Wind Renewable Energy Certificate (OREC) Agreement for the Empire Wind 2 offshore wind farm project. The Empire Wind 2 project called for development of an offshore wind farm…

Port NOLA, trade group sign joint marketing MOU

The Central Ohio River Business Association (CORBA) and the Port of New Orleans have signed a new Memorandum of Understanding to encourage efforts to create joint marketing initiatives. The memorandum marks the third renewal of the port-to-port relationship and “serves as a direct bridge between the Ports of Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky and Port NOLA,” according to Brandy D. Christian,…

The shortage of mariners willing to work for less

In the recent debate in gCaptain about the shortage of qualified American mariners is the reality that life at sea has become increasingly austere and isolating. The wage and benefit differential between a career at sea and one ashore is a thing of the past for licensed and unlicensed mariners alike. When an AB can earn as much working at…

Seatrain Texas

In the late 1920s, New York naval architect Graham Brush came up with the idea of developing a ship specifically built to carry railroad freight cars. As a result, Brush founded Seatrain Lines Inc. in 1928 to carry railroad cars from New York to New Orleans and Cuba. He designed the first ship, the Seatrain New Orleans, which was…

Mariners should care

Recognizing the need to protect wildlife from the threat of extinction and to encourage their recovery, the U.S. Congress wisely passed The Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) in 1972 and the Endangered Species Act (ESA) in 1973. Both laws took effect after being signed and approved by President Richard Nixon. While the ESA deals with wildlife at sea and ashore,…