Professional Mariner – January 2024 – Page 2

Capt. Kyle Pfenning: Navigating the ‘Big River’

Capt. Kyle Pfenning claims he got “Mark Twained” during what he thought would be a single hitch on a towboat back in 1995. “I took the deck job just to say I’d done it,” he explained. But a single hitch it was not to be – almost a quarter-century later, he’s veteran pilot on the inland waters. Pfenning has…

Virginia tour boat fire traced to engine room ignition

The fire that started during a Norfolk, Va., harbor cruise began in the engine room near a generator exhaust pipe, federal investigators said. Spirit of Norfolk was halfway through a lunchtime cruise on June 7, 2022, when crew saw smoke coming from portside engine room exhaust vents, according to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). The crew aboard the 169-foot…

Tanker fire linked to lithium handheld radio battery

Federal investigators believe a “thermal runaway” in the lithium-ion battery of a handheld radio caused a fire on an oil tanker docked at a Baton Rouge, La., fuel terminal. The captain of the 800-foot S-Trust discovered a fire in the bridge at about 3:30 pm on November 13, 2022. Crewmembers mustered in firefighting gear and extinguished the flames about 20…

Failure to maintain a lookout cited for collision

The fatal collision between the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Winslow Griesser and the center-console boat Desakata off the coast of Puerto Rico “resulted from the failure of either vessel to maintain a proper lookout,” according to the National Transportation Safety Board. On August 8, 2022, the cutter and the 23-foot, center console boat Desakata collided about four miles off the northern…

Government pushes for ‘almost’ maritime collision data

Federal officials are pushing the U.S. maritime industry to submit to the government information on incidents that had nearly resulted in vessel collisions as a way to improve safety. The Safe Maritime Transportation System (SafeMTS), a database that will store voluntary “near-miss” incidents, is being developed under the terms of an interagency agreement between the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Bureau…

Maintenance error cited in tanker engine room fire

An engine room fire aboard the Malta-flagged liquid bulk carrier Endo Breeze that resulted in $1.2 million damages was the result of a maintenance error, according to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). The incident occurred on April 29, 2022, when the 2003-built ship was transiting outbound through the Raritan Bay West Reach channel near Staten Island, NY. As a result of the…

Navigation gear makers respond to market needs

The International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) Chapter V, Regulation 19 lays out the mandatory rules that establish the requirements for shipboard navigation systems and equipment. The rules are specific and form a critical baseline for safe navigation and is one of the primary factors driving the advances in the development of the latest in navigational…

West coast floating offshore wind, pluses and minuses

As the offshore wind industry begins to blossom in the U.S., companies are eager to be part of the action even though questions still linger about the viability of meeting the federal government’s ambitious green energy goals. The “single most important factor” to future development of the technology is government support, according to the Global Wind Energy Council. The Biden-Harris…

Sewing up the loopholes in the Jones Act

The Jones Act, a law that supports the U.S. maritime industry, is alive and well despite many attempts over the years to weaken or circumvent its provisions. The Act, named for its sponsor, Sen. Wesley Jones (R-Wash.), is a provision in the Merchant Marine Act of 1920 which mandates that cargo moving between two points in the U.S. be carried…

Airbus looks to rotor-powered ships

While primarily known as an aircraft manufacturer, Airbus maintains its own fleet of three chartered vessels that ferry aircraft subassemblies across the Atlantic from Saint-Nazaire, France, to the company’s single-aisle aircraft final assembly line in Mobile, Alabama. With A320 production at the U.S. plant expected to climb to 75 aircraft per month by 2026, Airbus has commissioned shipowner Louis Dreyfus…