Seattle Injury Lawyer Blog

A fish processing vessel that went hard aground on Kodiak Island was struck by other problems earlier this year, including a diesel spill and two ammonia leaks.

The 169-foot Pacific Producer grounded in 9-foot tides early Friday while traveling through a narrow passage between Kodiak and Spruce islands. The vessel had just left the city of Kodiak two hours earlier when the mishap occurred in relatively calm seas, according to the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation.

“It hit the beach fairly hard,” said Steve Russell, the DEC’s state on-scene coordinator.

When Bret A. Simpson heard the hulking old barge Davy Crockett was for sale several years ago, “he saw the steel and he saw dollar signs,” said assistant U.S. Attorney Jim Oesterle.

Simpson, of Ellensburg, figured he could scrap the 400-foot former Navy ship and walk off with a tidy sum.

“He probably regrets that decision,” Oesterle said. Because in the midst of his ragtag scrapping operation, the Davy Crockett began spilling oil into the Columbia River near Camas, Washington.

On Friday, March 15, a 35-year-old crewman of the 58-foot fishing vessel Stella fell overboard into Shelikof Strait, Alaska.

The crewman spent 25 minutes in the 37.6 degree water without a survival suit before he was brought back aboard by his fellow crewmen. Weather at the time of the incident was reportedly 20 mph winds from the southwest with seas to 4-feet and freezing spray.

After the crewman was brought back aboard, a Coast Guard MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter crew from Air Station Kodiak medevaced the crewman who was exhibiting symptoms of hypothermia. The man was safely hoisted by the Coast Guard helicopter crew and delivered to emergency medical personnel at Air Station Kodiak for further transport to Providence Kodiak Island Medical Center.

The 47-foot tug Shanon E. Settoon was pushing a 154-foot oil barge when it allided with a submerged pipeline 6 p.m., Tuesday. The Coast Guard has responded to the scene near Bayou Perot 30 miles south of New Orleans.

A worker at a local marina reported that the tug exploded shortly after it struck the pipeline. Its remnants and the barge are still on the water and fully engulfed by flames. Coast Guard officials say the barge was carrying an estimated 2215 barrels of light crude oil, while the tow had about 1000 gallons of diesel fuel when the fire started. The Coast Guard says the plan right now is to allow the fire to burn itself out, because the surrounding waters are too shallow to allow firefighting vessels to get close to it.

All crewmembers were able to exit the tug, but the captain reportedly suffered severe burns and was taken to a nearby hospital for treatment. Three other crew members were on the boat as well and are accounted for, and at least one of them received minor injuries.

The Coast Guard is supervising the salvage and pollution response operations of a sunken towing vessel in the Mississippi River at Mile Marker 161.5 near New Orleans. The cause of the sinking is still under investigation.

Coast Guard Sector New Orleans watchstanders received a report around 2 a.m. Thursday that the 56-foot towing vessel Justice, owned by River Ventures LLC, had begun taking on water and sank around midnight. Three people aboard the tow vessel were able to get off before it sank.

The Coast Guard responded to the scene at approximately 6 a.m. to oversee pollution response operations. Boom was deployed and the Coast Guard is continuing to monitor the situation to identify shoreline impacts. The vessel was carrying 5336 gallons of diesel fuel and 100 gallons of lube oil when it sank. The actual amount of fuel discharged into the Mississippi River is unknown at this time; however, current estimates indicate the full amount of fuel and oil carried aboard the vessel has not released into the water. Divers were able to plug the fuel vents Thursday. The Lower Mississippi River Waterworks Network is currently monitoring water intakes in the area, but there have been no impacts to drinking water and none are expected. Mckinney Salvage and Heavy Lift are scheduled to commence salvage operations.

The 893 foot Carnival cruise ship Triumph reported a fire in the aft engine room Sunday morning. The ship’s fire control system and cruise ship personnel isolated and extinguished the engine room fire, but the vessel lost main propulsion and was left dead in the water in the Gulf of Mexico with more than 4,000 people onboard. The Coast Guard has been maintaining communication with the vessel, which lost power approximately 136 miles north of Merida, Mexico.

The ship has been operating on emergency power and receiving supplies from other cruise ships on scene. Tugs were dispatched to assist the vessel and the Coast Guard arrived Sunday night to escort the cruise ship to Mobile, Alabama, approximately 270 miles north. On Wednesday, the Coast Guard transported approximately 3,000 pounds of equipment, which included a generator and electrical cables. Carnival spokesman Vance Gulliksen said the Triumph is now expected arrive in Mobile between 8 and 11 p.m. Thursday.

Passengers aboard the vessel have described conditions as dismal. Speaking by phone to NBC’s “Today” show Thursday, passenger Janie Baker said conditions on the ship were “extremely terrible.” There has been no electricity and few working toilets, she said. Baker also described having to use plastic bags to go to the bathroom and wait in line for hours to get food and once saw a woman pass out while in line. Another passenger reported she waited in line for three hours to get a hot dog. “It’s just a nightmare,” Baker said. Baker said she and her friends slept with their life vests one night because the ship was listing and they feared it would tip over. Vivian Tilley, whose sister, Renee Shanar, is on the ship, said Shanar told her the cabins were hot and smelled like smoke from the engine fire, forcing passengers to stay on the deck. She also said people were getting sick. Communication with passengers on the Triumph has been limited to brief windows when other cruise ships with working cellular towers have rendezvoused to deliver supplies, but some relatives have reported being told of uncomfortable and unsanitary conditions.

A lifeboat being used on a safety drill aboard the Thomson Cruises’ cruise Vessel Thomson Majesty in Spain’s Canary Islands fell about 65 feet into a port on Sunday when a cable snapped, trapping crew members beneath it. Five crewmembers were killed in the accident and three more were injured. None of the hundreds of passengers aboard the British-operated vessel were involved in the accident.

Divers raced to the lifeboat, which had hit the water upside down, recovering four bodies and trying without success to revive a fifth crewman who had stopped breathing. The three injured crew members were taken by ambulance to a hospital in La Palma, and are said to be not badly hurt.

The ship docked at the island’s port of Santa Cruz in the morning, after arriving there from the neighboring island of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. It was due to depart at 3 p.m. for Funchal on the mid-Atlantic island of Madeira with 1,498 passengers and 594 crew aboard.

A man was medically evacuated from a 435-foot tank ship by a Coast Guard helicopter crew Saturday evening, approximately 50 miles southeast of the Texas-Mexico border.

The Stolt Flamenco crew contacted Coast Guard watchstanders at about 2:30 p.m. and requested a medevac for a Filipino crewmember who was struck by a crane while working on deck and had lost feeling in the lower half of his body.

A Coast Guard helicopter crew hoisted the man aboard and dropped him off to an awaiting EMS crew at Brownsville/South Padre Island International Airport at 6:50 p.m. where he was taken to Brownsville Valley Baptist hospital.