Maritime Injury Lawyer Blog

100 ft tugboat, Kaleen McAllister, sank off Pier 3 in Locust Point, Balitmore on May 4th.
Reportedly everyone had left the tugboat safely by the time it sank.

Apparently the tugboat struck a submerged object, leaving it damaged and taking on water.

The Baltimore Sun reported:

The Coast Guard "got a report that they were taking on water" sometime before midnight, Marin said, referring to the tugboat. Nearby tugs, including the Robert E. McAllister and Dann Marine Towing's Treasure Coast and Sun Coast, tried to assist the vessel but were unsuccessful, Reagoso said.

Efforts to pump water out of the tug faster than it was coming in failed, Marin said, and it sank at the pier, which is used by McAllister. The vessel began to sink about 7:30 p.m. and was submerged before 10 p.m., Reagoso said.

According to marine records, the tug is 102 feet long and was built in 1970. It had 22,900 gallons of fuel and 710 gallons of oil on board.

There was a report of a "small leak" of diesel fuel and lube oil after the tug sank, Marin said. The site has been "boomed off" to prevent any further spread of the leak, he said. McAllister notified an environmental cleanup firm it has on contract, Miller Environmental Group, Reagoso said.

The incident remains under investigation at this time.

Two Chinese barges, both carrying construction waste and sand collided in thick fog near Hong Kong. Six people were missing.

The force of the impact threw eleven crew members of one barge into the sea; that vessel sank very quickly after the crash. Five of the crew members were rescued, suffering from various injuries, but six could not be found. Divers continued to search the scene for the remaining crew members.

A statement from the Hong Kong marine department said, "The rescuers have searched for them overnight but we are still looking for the six missing."

Two fuel barges near Mobile, Alabama, close to the renown Carnival Triumph, exploded this Wednesday, resulting in two severe fires aboard. This explosion and subsequent fires resulted in critical burn injuries of 3 individuals who were on board the barge at the time of the incident. Fire and rescue officials at the scene of the incident let the flames burn through the night.

U.S. Coast Guard officials and firefighter responders share that they received the call about the explosion around 8:30 p.m. after the explosion which took place on two oil barges. Responders arrived at the scene, and about an hour later, a third explosion occurred at the scene, followed by another three over the next several hours.

Reports from the scene also show that the Carnival Triumph cruise line was moored for repairs on the other side of the river, and the workers living on the ship for the repairs have been evacuated.

As a result of heavy winds, a BAE guard shack and two men who were working in it were blown off the dock and into the water. One of the men was rescued, but crews are still on the look-out for the other man, who remains missing, although the formal search for him has been suspended.

The Coast Guard received a distress called from the tug Delta Captain and launched rescue crews; a 47-foot Motor Life Boat from Station Monterey, the Coast Guard Cutter Sockeye -- an 87-foot Coastal Patrol Boat home ported in Bodega Bay -- and an HH-65 Dolphin rescue helicopter from Air Station San Francisco.

The rescue helicopter crew located the survivors of the Delta Captain and deployed a rescue swimmer to hoist them aboard. All four were transported to shore in Monterey, and transferred to awaiting emergency medical technicians. There were no reports of injuries.

The tug Delta Captain sank and may still be attached via towline to the barge.

33-year-old Lia Hawkins fell to her heath on October 21, 2010. As part of a renovation crew on board M/V SAHARA, moored in Ballard, Washington, part of Lia Hawkins job was to tear out interior walls and dump the refuse over the side into a waste container located far below. While there were no witnesses and some time elapsed before she was noticed missing, all indications are that she was working at carrying heavy scrap metal to the side when she went through a gap in a deck railing, falling four decks into the water. According to the medical report, Ms. Hawkins suffered a skull fracture and drowned. She had no heirs, but left behind her parents and other relatives.

Her parents sued G Shipping for wrongful death, citing the unsafe conditions under which their daughter worked. Not only was the railing unsafe, but another employee stated that how things were laid out on deck could cause a loss of balance while carrying a heavy load. There were little or no safety measures in place on board and there was no one appointed in charge of safety.

A federal court jury has just awarded Ms. Hawkins' family $3.45 million for wrongful death in finding G Shipping negligent in furnishing a safe work environment.

A cargo ship crashed into a 160-foot-tall control tower at the port of Genoa on May 7. Killing six with three still missing. The ship, the Italian Jolly Nero, was captained by two pilots leaving the port at the time of the collision.

Two of the victims were coastguard officers and a third was a pilot for the port, according to the Italian coastguard; the three others have not yet been identified, and were recovered from the wreckage of the tower's lift.

An investigation into the cause of the crash is focusing on a possible malfunction of the ship's engine or steering mechanism.

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.

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.

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.

The U.S. Coast Guard has engaged federal and state partners in their response to a report of a barge that struck the walls of the lock approach to The Dalles while transiting on the Columbia River at approximately 3 a.m., Friday.

The double-bottom barge Tri-City Voyager, which was being pushed by the tug Defiance, has approximately 1,770,000 gallons of diesel fuel on board. The Dalles lock operators reported no smell of diesel fuel and no visible pollution. There are no reports of a hazard to navigation in the Columbia River. No injuries were reported.

Coast Guard Sector Columbia River command center received a call at 3:13 a.m., from the agent of the Tidewater Tug Co., stating that the Tri-City Voyager struck an object in the water while transiting north on the Columbia River near The Dalles Dam. Defiance crewmembers conducted an immediate assessment, which included a sounding of their fuel tanks and bottom hull, and saw no breech and reported no pollution.

The tug and barge continued north, through the Dalles Dam locks, at approximately 4 a.m., and safely moored at the upper basin north wall.

There was an early morning fire aboard a 50-foot commercial fishing vessel berthed at Fisherman's Terminal, Seattle. Fire crews found the boat burning when they arrived on scene just after 4 a.m. Friday and used foam to control the fire within minutes.

The fire was reportedly caused by a faulty electrical outlet in the galley. Damaged is estimate at $200,000.

Five crewmembers from the POLAR WIND were rescued after the tug its barge went aground.

The Northland Services tug was 20 miles from Cold Bay when it became separated from the barge. The two vessels drifted while the crew was trying to reconnect the towline.

The Coast Guard received a distress call at around 9pm on Tuesday, and responded with two helicopters. According to Coast Guard Petty Officer David Mosley, weather was a factor. Mosley says that the rescue was made five hours later, and had to be completed in two rounds.

Having rescued the crew of the POLAR WIND, the Coast Guard and the Department of Environmental Conservation are now working to reduce the impact to Alaska's coastline. The tug and barge were carrying more than 23,000 gallons of diesel fuel at the time of the grounding along with smaller amounts of lube oil and other petroleum-based products. The barge was also carrying 90 refrigerated containers, 30 of which were in use. The contents of these containers have not been disclosed and the Coast Guard is waiting for a cargo manifest.