Weekly News Summary For February 27-March 5, 2006:
When Don Gagnon walked through Crescent Towing Company’s fleeting yard at mile 93.5 on the Westbank of the Mississippi River on February 8, he thought he was going to catch a launch to the upbound ship Marlin for an uneventful trip. Orders were to meet the ship at 6:30 a.m.
He never made it to the Marlin.
Capt. Gagnon is a NOBRA (New Orleans-Baton Rouge Steamship Pilots Association) Pilot. NOBRA pilots guide deep draft vessels from New Orleans to Baton Rouge. Bar Pilots are responsible for ships from the sea buoy off Southwest Pass to Venice, La., about 10 miles upriver, where the Crescent Pilots take over for the run to New Orleans.
As he looked across the pre-dawn river, Gagnon saw the 855-foot Ecstasy, a Carnival Cruise Line ship that was docked at the Pauline Street wharf on the East Bank. Two Navy ships were breasted up, just a couple of hundred feet downriver at the Poland Street wharf.
The Ecstasy was moored bow downriver and was housing 1,600 New Orleans police, firemen and other first responders and family members who had lost their homes to Hurricane Katrina flood waters.
Two other Carnival cruise ships are chartered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency to provide housing—the Sensation, also moored in New Orleans, and the Holiday, docked in Pascagoula, Miss. A fourth ship, the Scotia Prince, is housing 600 St. Bernard workers at a dock in Violet, La. Contracts for the ships end March 1.
The Ecstasy seemed to be backing out into stream, Gagnon said. As he looked, he saw what he assumed to be a tug moored alongside the ship. Then he realized it was not a tug, but a barge. Things just did not seem right. Ships don’t sail with barges alongside. Gagnon called the ship on his hand-held VHF radio. There was no answer….
The Bush administration’s decision to allow Dubai Ports World (DPW) to acquire significant control over operations at six U.S. ports ignited a weeklong firestorm, with some members of Congress worried about terrorist infiltration threatening to legislate an end to the deal and the president threatening to squash any such legislation with his first veto.
The acquisition came about when DPW signed a $6.8 billion contract to purchase London-based Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Co. (P&O), which now operates terminals in the ports of New York/New Jersey, Baltimore, New Orleans, Miami and Philadelphia. The acquisition was approved by the U.S. Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, whose chairman is Treasury Secretary John Snow. Frederick Jones, spokesman for the National Security Council, said the sale was “rigorously reviewed” for possible security threats.
But those assurances did not allay the fears of some members of Congress, both Republicans and Democrats.
Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) urged the administration to consider the sale carefully. “America’s busiest ports are vital to our economy and to the international economy, and that is why they remain top terrorist targets,” he said.
Rep. Peter T. King (R-N.Y.) said that U.S. terms for approving the Arab takeover of port operations are not sufficient to guard against terrorist infiltration.
Commenting on the controversy upon his return from a trip to the West and Midwest, President Bush said February 21 if there was any chance that the transaction would jeopardize the security of the United States, “it would not go forward. The company has been cooperative with the United States government. The company will not manage port security. The security of our ports will continue to be managed by the (U.S.) Coast Guard and (U.S.) Customs (and Border Protection). The company is from a country that has been cooperative in the war on terror, been an ally in the war on terror. The company operates ports in different countries around the world, ports from which cargo has been sent to the United States on a regular basis.”…
Roll Form Group, a division of Samuel Manu-Tech Inc., announced it will locate a $22 million steel fabrication facility in Tishomingo County at Yellow Creek Port industrial complex in Iuka, Miss. Site work will begin in the next few months, and the project is expected to be operational during the first quarter of 2007.
Established in partnership with state and local authorities, the plant will be located on 22 acres with easy access to barge, rail and truck transportation. Roll Group currently has operations in Cambridge, Mississauga, Scarborough and Edmonton, Canada.
Port director Eugene Bishop said the project has been months of hard work in the making. In the beginning, Bishop said Roll Form Group presented itself to the port as “Project Red Team” to protect its confidentiality….
The U.S. Maritime Administration (MarAd) announced last week that it will work with other maritime industry entities to raise public awareness of the maritime industry and to make Maritime Day “an event the entire nation embraces.”
Since a 1933 act of Congress, May 22 has been designated National Maritime Day, a day for the United States to observe its proud maritime heritage, honor the men and women who serve and have served as merchant mariners, and recognize the many benefits that result from the American maritime industry. National Maritime Day also follows on the heels of National Transportation Week, which the U.S. Department of Transportation has announced will run the week of May 14–20.
As a way to underscore the critical importance of the maritime industry to the national transportation network, this year MarAd, supported by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the American Association of Port Authorities, The Propeller Club of the United States, Waterways Council Inc. and other maritime groups, will introduce an awareness campaign designed to focus national attention on the maritime industry. Called “Maritime Matters,” the campaign will help to communicate the value of the maritime industry in relation to the economy, national security, jobs, environmental protection, agriculture, quality of life, recreation and more….
Nashville District Corps of Engineers officials broke tradition February 3 while christening two new pieces of floating equipment at a public access and picnic site above Cheatham Lock and Dam along the Cumberland River near Ashland City, Tenn.
District Engineer Lt. Col. Steven J. Roemhildt told family members, Corps employees and guests that Corps regulations require their vessels to be named after a geographical area or a Native American Indian tribe. Naming the new towboat Iroquois was no problem, he said, but special permission was necessary to name its companion workshop and derrick barge, Binkley, in honor of a deceased employee, Louis M. “Louie” Binkley.
The new 2,100 hp. towboat was delivered to the Nashville District by Quality Shipyards LLC, Houma, La., and measures 76 by 35 by 91/2 feet with a normal operating draft of seven feet. It is the third towboat named in honor of the Iroquois Indians, who were one of several tribes who populated the Cumberland River Valley when the country was being explored and our population advanced westward.
The new boat replaces the former 730 hp. Iroquois, which had served the Corps since 1955 when it was delivered to the Louisville District where it served prior to being transferred to the Nashville District in 1970. Final disposition of the older Iroquois will be determined next month after the Corps has reviewed bid requests from other government agencies that may be interested in acquiring the vessel.
The 255-by 56-foot derrick boat Binkley was delivered to the Nashville District by Conrad Industries, Morgan City, La. The impressive vessel has twin generators capable of producing 170 kw. of electric power and a fully-equipped machine and fabrication shop to support its various repair and maintenance assignments along the Cumberland and Tennessee rivers. It is designed to support a 300-ton crawler crane, which, when delivered, will more than double the district’s heavy-lift capabilities as it replaces the thirty-year old Derrick Boat #10….
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