Articles Posted in Maritime Issues

A man was rescued from a 30-foot motor boat that went up in flames Thursday morning as it floated in the placid blue waters between Bainbridge Island and the Kitsap Peninsula. The fire broke out about 6:45 a.m. after the man piloted his boat, the “Liberty Call,” out of the Brownsville Marina and was heading through Agate Passage, said a North Kitsap Fire Department spokesperson. A friend was following behind in another boat and was able to rescue the man as flames spread through the vessel. But the man was unable to get his dog off the boat, and it died in the blaze. The fire continued burning for some time before crews were able to reach it. Aerial footage shot by KOMO’s Air 4 showed the blaze burning fiercely and a tall column of smoke rising above it as it drifted through Agate Passage. The boat has continued drifting since northward the fire. It is still smoking, but the fire appears to be out. The vessel is considered a total loss.

Recreational boating accidents are the most common cause of maritime injury and death. The National Transportation Safety Board reports that 672 lives were lost in recreational boating accidents in 2010 as opposed to a total of 61 lost in cargo transport, commercial fishing, and commercial passengers combined. It is unclear if the man in this story suffered any physical injuries. However, this case provides an example of where a boater may have a claim against a third party for damages suffered in the blaze. The facts currently available do not make clear what caused the fire, but where a vessel spontaneously bursts into flames, it is generally wise to investigate the cause to determine if there were any defective parts that caused the fire. If the fire was caused by defective parts or equipment, the boater may be entitled to recovery against the manufacturer.

For more information on this story see http://www.seattlepi.com/local/komo/article/Man-rescued-from-burning-boat-near-Bainbridge-3549000.php

There have been multiple headlines in the last few weeks regarding suits against Ride the Ducks arising out of injuries to tour passengers or other drivers on the road.

Yesterday, days into a federal wrongful death trial that was expected to last a month, a $17 million settlement was reached with the surviving families of two killed and others injured on a Ride the Ducks tour in Philadelphia. The families of two Hungarian students killed will split $15 million and eighteen surviving passengers will share in $2 million in the deal.

The Hungarian students, whose group was visiting the U.S. through a church exchange program, drowned when their amphibious sightseeing boat was slammed by an empty sludge barge and capsized on July 7, 2010. Their families filed wrongful-death lawsuits against K-Sea Transportation, of East Brunswick, N.J., which operated the tugboat guiding the barge upriver, and Ride the Ducks, of Norcross, Ga., which operated the tour boat. The tug pushed the 250-foot-long barge into and over the 33-foot-long Duck as it sat idle and anchored in an active shipping lane along its route, sending 37 people into the river about 150 feet from the Philadelphia shoreline. Survivors were pulled from the murky water by firefighters, a passing ferry boat and bystanders who swam from shore. In a video shown on the first day of the trial Monday, one of the students killed could be seen throwing a life jacket to a deckhand who jumped from the boat seconds before the collision and survived. The families of the victims argued the boat companies were rife with unclear safety policies and ineffective training and procedures that caused the crash. K-Sea Transportation and Ride the Ducks blamed each other and the tug pilot who was sentenced in November to a year in prison for the crash. The tug pilot was on his cell phone amid a family emergency, moved to a part of the tug that blocked his view of the river and turned down a marine radio, stifling mayday calls before the allision. He pleaded guilty to the maritime equivalent of involuntary manslaughter.

The Coast Guard rescued three fishermen early this morning after their 37-foot fishing vessel Karanna ran aground on the Chibahdehl Rocks, approximately four miles west of Neah Bay, Wash. There were reports at 3:35 a.m. that the vessel was taking on water and when rescue crews arrived they were unable to pull up alongside the vessel due to the shallow waters. As a result, the fishermen had to swim to the rescue boat and were then taken to shore to awaiting emergency medical personnel.

It was reported that the grounding occurred due to the operator of the vessel falling asleep while transitioning. Fatigue among seamen is a leading cause of maritime injuries. As a result, there are strict Coast Guard regulations prohibiting those piloting vessels from working more than a set number of hours, usually a 12 hours in any 24-hour period. In this case it is unclear from reports what injuries the rescued fishermen suffered or whether the operator’s fatigue was caused by a statutory violation. However, where crewmembers are fatigued due to having worked more than the time permitted, and injuries result from their fatigue, the vessel owner is generally liable for the resulting injuries.

Tacoma added a new fireboat to its fleet this week. The boat is faster, more agile and more economical to operate than the aging boat it joins, but the $675,000, 30-foot Destiny has one thing in common with its fleet mate: Both were built outside the United States. The Destiny was built in Canada and the Commencement was built 30 years ago in England.

The Port of Tacoma and the City of Tacoma bypassed two lower bidders who would have constructed the new fireboat in Western Washington. At least one of those local boat builders, Northwind Marine of Seattle, is puzzled why taxpayer money was used to create jobs in Canada especially when the boat could have been built less expensively locally.

Port of Tacoma spokeswoman Tara Mattina said neither the country where the boat would be built nor the dollar amount of the bids was a consideration in deciding which bidder got the job. Three port and city employees ranked the four responding bidders and their products based on their responses to a request for proposals the port issued nearly two years ago. Among the criteria were vessel reliability, builder qualifications, warranties, training for boat operators and mechanics, the vessel’s quality and ease of use and the proposed delivery schedule. Each of the three evaluators could award up to 100 points to each bidder. Those combined scores put Canada’s Metalcraft at the top with a score of 268. Port Angeles’ Armstrong Marine was second with 227 points, Canada’s Hike Marine was third with 213 and Northwind a distant fourth with just 63 points.

In March, the Grand Alliance shipping lines decided to move from Seattle to Tacoma. When that happens in July, it will take about 20 percent of the container business from the Port of Seattle, more if lines associated with the alliance, Zim and Hamburg Sud, decide to go, too.

The good news for the state is that the Grand Alliance will still call in Washington. The bad: The state’s two biggest ports are largely fighting each other for existing business rather than adding much. For example, in 2009, Maersk Lines moved from Tacoma to Seattle.

Seattle is North America’s seventh-biggest container port; Tacoma ranks No. 11 and is soon to rise. Both are critical elements for one of America’s most trade-dependent states. The ports generally earn revenues from tenants that operate terminals and lease space, as well as from tax-levy dollars usually used for general obligation debt or infrastructure and transportation.

An Australia boat-building company has decided to open a facility in Anacortes rather than in Bellingham.

Last month Aluminum Boats Australia entered into a 30-day due diligence period with the Port of Bellingham to lease a 30,000-square-foot site at the Fairhaven Marine Industrial Park, near the Bellingham Cruise Terminal. According to a press release from the port, Aluminum Boats Australia officials said Bellingham was its first choice, but that the inability to directly launch vessels the size the company builds from that site added “insurmountable costs” to the business. Protection of sensitive salmon habitat and tidelands alongside the industrial park restricts the port from building a launch facility at that site.

The company found a site in Anacortes with direct launch capabilities, but is delaying its expansion until it secures a new business contract.

Earlier this month, the Coast Guard sank a 164-foot Japanese shrimping vessel, the Ryou-Un Maru, in the Gulf of Alaska about 195 miles south of Sitka after the vessel drifted for over a year across the Pacific Ocean. The vessel was dislodged in Hokkaido due to the March 2011 tsunami. Federal marine and environmental officials decided that sinking the ship, which had no power, lights or communication equipment, would be better than having it collide with another ship or run aground along the coast. “It’s safer to mitigate the risks now before there’s an accident or environmental impact,” said Coast Guard spokesman Petty Officer Charley Hengen.

The Ryou-Un Maru, dubbed the “Ghost Ship,” marks the beginning of what is likely to be a substantial amount of debris from the Tsunami reaching the west coast of North America. The Japanese government estimated that the tsunami swept about 5 million tons of debris into the ocean, but that 70 percent sank off shore, leaving 1.5 million tons floating. There no estimate of how much debris is still floating today. Many variables affect where the debris will go and when. Items will sink, disperse, and break up along the way, and winds and ocean currents constantly change, making it very difficult to predict an exact date and location for the debris’ arrival on our shores. A new NOAA modeling effort shows that some buoyant items may have reached the Pacific Northwest coast during winter 2011-2012. The bulk of the debris is likely still dispersed north of the Main Hawaiian Islands and east of Midway Atoll. Scientific forecasting models are only sophisticated guesses, so estimates vary as to debris arrival times, locations, and quantities.

What is clear, however, is that eventually our coast will be hit with some amount of debris from the Tsunami. As we move forward, some plan of action will need to be put in place to address the environmental impact on our shores and potential navigational hazards imposed by the debris.

A spectacular fire destroyed a 105-foot yacht at Fishermen’s Terminal before dawn today, April 27, 2012, just hours before it was due to depart on a 15-day Alaskan cruise.

No one was injured, and a harbor patrol boat managed to tow a half-dozen other boats away from the fire to protect them, said Kyle Moore, Seattle Fire Department spokesman.

The fire call came in at 1:10 a.m., and crews fought the fire with two hoses from shore-each pumping 300 gallons a minute, and a fire boat-pumping 800 gallons a minute. The harbor patrol boat also put water on the yacht. In addition, fire-suppressing foam was put on the boat.

On Thursday afternoon, the Coast Guard has suspended its search pending further developments for a 48-year-old man who was reported to have fallen overboard into the frigid Atlantic from a Boston-bound tugboat approximately nine miles south of Newport, R.I. on Wednesday. The man was the master of the New York based 91 foot tug Steven-Scott. It is reported that he may not have been wearing a life jacket.

The crew of the Steven-Scott contacted the Coast Guard Sector Southeastern New England Command Center at 2:40 p.m., Wednesday, reporting that the man was last seen at approximately 1:30 p.m. and that he may have gone overboard.

The Coast Guard broadcast an urgent alert to all mariners in the area and dispatched a motor life boat, a response boat, two patrol boats, and a helicopter to the area, searching 775 square miles.