A bulk carrier in ballast preparing to pick up a pilot off New York harbor slammed into the Ambrose light tower, causing serious damage to the tower and inflicting a series of tears in its hull. The bridge wing of…
Professional Mariner has selected the Columbia River Bar Pilots and U.S. Coast Guard Capt. Domenic Calicchio as winners of the 2003 Samuel Plimsoll Awards for outstanding service in promoting safety in the maritime industry. Columbia River Bar Pilot Bill Worth…
The crew of a laden tanker awaiting repairs near the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel were surprised by an unexpected visitor during a calm night in late October. The tanker Burgas was at anchor at the Golf 4 anchorage, just inside…
Two tankers - one filled with more than 10 million gallons of gasoline - collided in clear weather and calm seas in the Gulf of Mexico in September. The bow of Vega shows damage from its collision with another tanker.…
High velocity water sprays combined with low water discharge rates are changing the way shipboard fires are fought. The eruption of a fuel fire in the engine room of the cruise ship Nordic Empress (see sidebar) was controlled and extinguished…
Six recreational fishermen died after their 17-foot boat was struck by a towboat and its barges on the Ohio River, about 25 miles northeast of Louisville, Ky. The accident occurred in the early Sunday morning darkness on July 15, 2001.…
A chemical tanker departing the port of Savannah on a clear night in September, 2000 suddenly veered from the channel and plowed into a LNG terminal, destroying a large section of pier and damaging shoreside machinery. The chemical tanker Sun…
Three offshore oil vessels sank in the Gulf of Mexico in as many days in May. The Coast Guard is investigating the string of sinkings that occurred May 8 to May 10 off the Louisiana coast. In two of the…
A tugboat collided with an oil tanker in January and rolled on its side before righting itself in stormy seas off of Washington. Two crewmen of the tugboat Sea King suffered minor injuries, but the evidence suggests the accident could…
Three crewmen were killed and five injured following a raging fire and explosion aboard the 180-foot fishing/processing vessel Galaxy in the icy waters of the Bering Sea. A fisherman aboard another vessel was swept overboard and lost at sea as…
Four crewmen were killed when their tugboat, which was escorting three barges, collided with a 520-foot bulk carrier in dense fog near the southern entrance of the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal. Kastner lies aground in Elk River following a collision…
Pilot error and hydraulic effect led two bulk carriers to collide near the Sunshine Skyway Bridge in Florida on Oct. 24, 2002. Bernardo Quintana's port lifeboat shows the effects of the impact. Image Credit: US Coast Guard Antilles III,…
