Maritime Injury Lawyer Blog

Six fishermen are safe after their vessel began taking on water and sank approximately two miles off the coast of Kahoolawe, Maui.

Coast Guard Sector Honolulu watchstanders received a radio call from the captain of the 43-foot charter fishing vessel Piper at 12 p.m. The captain reported the vessel was sinking and passengers were putting on lifejackets. All six people aboard the Piper abandoned ship into a life raft.

A 45-foot Response Boat from Coast Guard Station Maui was launched. Watchstanders issued an Urgent Marine Information Broadcast over VHF marine radio channel 16 to notify other vessels in the area of the emergency and the need for immediate assistance. The crew aboard the recreational vessel Misti III responded and rescued the passengers and crew. The Misti III transported the six survivors to Ma'alaea Harbor where emergency medical services met them. No serious injuries were reported.

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

After 25 minutes in the 37.6 degree water without a survival suit the crewman was brought back aboard. Weather at the time of the incident was reportedly 20 mph winds from the southwest with seas to 4-feet with freezing spray.

A Coast Guard MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter crew from Air Station Kodiak medevaced the crewman who was exhibiting hypothermia.

The Coast Guard is currently investigating the cause of the fall.

47-foot tug Shanon E. Settoon collided with a submerged pipeline. The Coast Guard has responded to the scene near Bayou Perot 30 miles south of New Orleans.

Reportedly the tug exploded shortly after it struck the pipeline. Its remnants and the 147 foot oil barge barge were fully engulfed by flames. Coast Guard officials say the barge was carrying an estimated 2,215 barrels of light crude oil, while the tow had about 1,000 gallons of diesel fuel when the fire started.

All 4 crew-members exited the tug, but the captain reportedly suffered severe burns and was taken to a nearby hospital for treatment.

Coast Guard is supervising the salvage and pollution response operations of a sunken 56-foot towing vessel Justice 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 received a report that Justice began taking on water and sank around midnight. Three people aboard the tow vessel were able to get off before it sank.

Coast Guard reports a 27-year-old fisherman working aboard Seattle-based 116-foot F/V BEAUTY BAY was medevaced by Coast Guard helicopter the morning of March 8 for a hand injury he had suffered the prior morning. The young man was transported to the St. Paul Clinic for immediate care.

The weather on the day of the injury consisted of 50 mph winds and over 20-foot seas, too rough for the Coast Guard to safely reach BEAUTY BAY. During that time, BEAUTY BAY proceeded toward the town of St. Paul in order to shorten the distance before the pending medevac. By the morning of March 8, the weather had improved and the airlift was able to proceed safely.

A 47-year-old crewman was airlifted from 780-foot freighter HORIZON TRADER about 200 miles east of Chesapeake Bay on March 6 after Coast Guard was requested to help. The man had fallen and suffered injuries to his chest. He was airlifted by Coast Guard helicopter to Sentara Norfolk General Hospital in Virginia. No other details have been released.

Morning of March 6, F/V SEAFARER and her crew of three headed was disabled and on tow by her sister ship, F/V CAPTAIN ALEX. The tow was lost and SEAFARER disappeared from view. Her EPIRB signal alerted the Coast Guard at 10:39 a.m. The Coast Guard arrived about fifteen miles east of Assateague Island, MD, and found Patrick Small of NC, in a raft with hypothermia and a head injury. He was airlifted to hospital care.

The other two fishermen, said to be Walter Tate, Sr., and his nephew, Steve Tate, both also of North Carolina, remain missing. Seas at the time were 8 to 12 feet with winds of 30 to 40 miles per hour; the Coast Guard suspended the search yesterday evening as rain and cloud cover increased with winds reaching 60 per hour, but resumed their efforts at daybreak today. At 1:00 p.m. EST today, after searching over 560 square nautical miles, the search was again suspended.

Midnight on February 13, a 44-year-old crewman aboard F/V STARBOUND was reported as having heart attack symptoms. The Coast Guard deployed a helicopter to the location STARBOUND off St. Paul, Alaska, and airlifted the man to the St. Paul Clinic.

STARBOUND is registered as a 205-foot, steel-hulled fishing vessel based in Seattle. There is no word on the crewman's condition.

F/V BLUE WATER TOO, Oregon based, experienced a medical emergency when a 64-year-old crewmember was having chest pains. Following a call for assistance in during the afternoon of February 13, the vessel was about two nautical miles off the mouth of Tillimook Bay, a Coast Guard motor lifeboat to transported the crewman for emergency medical care. His condition was listed as stable.

Disabled cruise ship CARNIVAL TRIUMPH is being escorted to Mobile, Alabama. Two tug boats involved are Fort Lauderdale-based RESOLVE PIONEER and St. Vincent and the Grenadines-flagged tug DABHOL. There is about 270 miles to go and they are scheduled to arrive in Mobile on Thursday.

The Coast Guard and the NTSB will participate in investigating the cause of the fire, but as CARNIVAL TRIUMPH is Bahamian-flagged, the Bahamas Maritime Authority will act as the lead investigative body. The outcome will be made public after the investigation.

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

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 delivered him 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.

893-foot cruise ship CARNIVAL TRIUMPH with a 3858 passengers and crew capacity, went adrift about 150 miles off the Yucatan Peninsula on February 10 after a fire in the engine room. The fire was extinguished by an automatic fire extinguishing system, and no injuries were reported.

Carnival Corporation has reported that the ship is using an emergency power generator, which is supplying some basic needs, and that another Carnival ship, CARNIVAL ELATION, has transferred provisions to TRIUMPH. The U.S. Coast Guard is also at hand.

Approximately 35 miles southeast of Nantucket, the crew of 88-foot F/V RAIDERS, fought an onboard fire with extinguishers. The crew of eight exhausted their extinguishers, and a Good Samaritan in the area supplied RAIDERS with five more. The fire was extinguished, but the engine was determined to be non-functional. A Coast Guard cutter arrived and began towing before a tugboat hired by the RAIDERS took over. No pollution or injuries were reported.

Feb 4 at 1:20 am, the four-person crew of 47-foot F/V CAPTAIN RM CHACE sent out a distress call, relaying that their vessel was flooding. The crew waited in their survival suits for the Coast Guard to arrive with an additional dewatering pump. The extra pump controlled the flooding enough for the CAPTAIN RM CHACE to be escorted to port in Hyannis, where the crew was able to offload their catch.

F/V NORTH SEA, a Seattle-based Coastal Villages Region Fund crab boat, experienced an emergency med-evac of a 23 year old fisherman on Jan 30th . NORTH SEA crewmembers called the Coast Guard that afternoon as the crewman was suffering seizure-like symptoms.

NORTH SEA was about 60 miles southwest of St. Paul, Alaska. Conditions at the time are said to have been 6-foot seas and 29mph winds. The Coast Guard Jayhawk helicopter from Air Station Kodiak airlifted the fisherman to St. Paul for medical attention.