Professional Mariner – February 2025 – Page 2

Moving ships with Bisso’s new tug

Mr. Brian sat at the Bisso Towboat Co. Inc. dock around Mile 165 AHP of the Mississippi River in Convent, La., waiting for a ship. Waiting for two, actually — one bulk carrier was coming off the dock, destined for sea; another was shifting from an upper to lower berth. Mr. Brian, along with Capt. Joseph Bisso, was waiting patiently. …

Wasted steel and temporary repairs caused partial sinking of towboat on Mississippi

Officials are offering guidance on the maintenance and repair of steel hulls after a towing vessel flooded and partially sank on the Lower Mississippi River in Louisiana. On the morning of March 26, 2023, the 71-foot-long Uncle Blue was towing an empty barge in Ascension Parish when it began taking on water. After the captain called for help, a good Samaritan vessel…

Crew desensitized to “getting stuck” and a poor load plan led to grounding of bulker at Great Lakes port

Experience did not lead to acumen in the case of an incident that fractured the hull of a bulk carrier, according to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). John J Bolland was twice grounded while loading at a port in Michigan on April 21, 2023. After the ship’s master used a blast from its thrusters to free the vessel, the…

‘Miscommunication’ cited in pier strike during barge docking in Puerto Rico

The oceangoing tugboat Signet Thunder approached the terminal in San Juan, Puerto Rico, with a massive roll-on, roll-off (ro-ro) barge in tow and three assist tugs at the ready. As the 699-by-104-foot San Juan-JAX Bridge eased into berth stern first, the docking pilot aboard the barge issued commands to Brooklyn McAllister, which was positioned on the barge’s starboard quarter facing away from the pier. According…

Cruise ship misses ‘shadow’ from current, collides with San Francisco pier

There was a strong ebb running out of the Golden Gate as the cruise ship Ruby Princess approached San Francisco Bay in July 2023. Though the current was flowing at some 2.8 knots along the waterfront, neither the vessel’s master nor the San Francisco Bay Bar pilot, who had boarded the 947-foot ship some 11 miles west of the bay…

Training ice pilots in virtual reality

On Dec. 9, 2024, Alexandra Jahn, a climatologist of the University of Colorado, presented research she had made with a Swedish colleague to the American Geophysical Society in Washington: Depending on seasonal factors, the projections of the two researchers showed that the first “ice-free day” may occur in the Arctic by the end of the current decade, which conventionally means…

A brief discussion about pilotage

American pilots are some of the best trained and most capable mariners anywhere in the world, doing one of the most dangerous jobs in the industry. As the maritime industry faces issues with recruitment and retention, and as the promise — some would say threat — of autonomous ship technology looms, Professional Mariner sat down with Clay Diamond, the executive…

Don’t get burned

The merchant marine is a profession like no other, offering a myriad of options for anyone interested in working on a commercial vessel. For some, that might mean a tugboat handling barges in the Gulf of Mexico; for others, it could be a tanker running crude oil from Alaska or an oceanographic ship doing scientific projects off the coast of…