Weekly News Summary For September 4–10, 2006:
Three Tows Ground In One Day On Lower Miss
Three tows grounded during low-water conditions on the Mississippi River on August 24, forcing the Coast Guard to close the river to traffic in the three areas. No injuries or pollution was reported.
The 140-foot towboat Capt. Russell Simpson ran aground at Mile 626.1 AHP (Above Head of Passes), about 40 miles south of Helena, Ark., at 3:15 a.m. The river was reopened at 6:30 p.m. August 25. The Coast Guard reported the towboat was pushing 25 barges of dry cargo at the time of the accident, forcing closure from Mile 623.1 to Mile 628.
About the same time, the 128-foot Noble C. Parsonage ran aground at Mile 265.5, at St. Francisville, La. The Parsonage had 25 barges loaded with grain and coal at the time of the accident, the Coast Guard reported.
Coast Guard Petty Officer Susan Blake said the river was reopened at 8 a.m. August 28 to 11 southbound vessels and eight northbound units. Once those vessels passed, the Coast Guard planned to re-close the River for additional dredging, which was expected to take about 20 hours, she said.
Blake said the dredge reported hitting clay, which slowed the dredging and required additional equipment to be brought on-scene. Closure was between Miles 263 and 267.
Several hours later, about 6:30 a.m. on August 24, the 200-foot Robert A Kyle grounded at Mile 595.5, or 15 miles north of Rosedale, Miss….
It’s a classic case of one man’s junk being another man’s treasure.
Congress has directed the U.S. Maritime Administration (MarAd) to dispose of some of the aging Ready Reserve merchant ships, some of which date to World War II. Recent contracts signed by MarAd to recycle those ships cost the agency in the neighborhood of $1.2 million per ship.
Meanwhile, a state senator from hurricane-ravaged Louisiana would like to take the ships to sink or ground at strategic locations along the coastline and in the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet (MR-GO) to block storm surge and the coastal erosion caused by hurricane-driven winds and high seas.
Sen. Walter Boasso says it would cost about $200,000 each to clean the ships for the grounding.
MarAd proposed using obsolete ships as storm buffers several years ago, said Deepak Varshney, the new director of MarAd’s Central Region. The idea did not gain traction due to inaccurate information being disseminated about the disposal process….
The U.S. Coast Guard National Maritime Center (NMC) has opened its first office in Martinsburg, W.Va., a milestone in its mariner licensing and documentation program restructuring and centralization project.
The NMC office in West Virginia will initially evaluate applications and issue credentials for mariners applying through New Orleans. The transfer of remaining divisions and functions from Arlington, Va., to the Martinsburg area will continue over the next year.
When a permanent facility is completed during the summer of 2007, all evaluation and issuing functions will take place in Martinsburg as part of a project to improve customer service to mariners. The mission of the Coast Guard’s Regional Examination Centers will also change to focus on providing direct service to mariners, including fingerprinting, establishing identities, administering testing and providing course oversight….
The St. Louis Engineer District’s Dredge Potter was sent to the Ohio River to take on an emergency dredging mission after a towboat with nine barges ran aground at Mile 974.3 on the Ohio River near Mound City, Ill, about seven miles from the Ohio’s confluence with the Mississippi.
The St. Louis Engineer District was able to accommodate the Louisville Engineer District’s request thanks to much needed rain that fell in the past week in St. Louis. St. Louis has been suffering from low water for several weeks, causing the dredge Potter to be put into service a few weeks early to keep up with dredging demands.
Dredge Potter arrived and went to work on the Ohio on August 30. Work there was scheduled to take three to four days to complete.
The U.S. Coast Guard closed the Ohio River after the incident. The barge tow has been removed, and the river was reopened. Dredge Potter will dig the channel back to design depth.
Rising literally from the ashes, the Phoenix-like harbor boat Bonnie C was properly christened in ceremonies held in Rochester, Pa., July 17. The boat burned to the waterline in 2003 when it was named the Boaz.
C&C Marine Maintenance Inc., a subsidiary of Campbell Transportation Company, Charleroi, Pa., resurrected the vessel over a one-year period at its yard at Mile 39 on the Ohio River, totally gutting the boat, redesigning the superstructure and rebuilding it from the main deck up. The only thing left intact was the hull, the two steering and four flanking rudders, the four-inch shafts and the 54- by 42-inch wheels.
“The underwater apparatus was good,” said Don Checkan, C&C’s general manager and the person in whose honor the boat was named.
His wife, Bonnie, is the vessel’s namesake and was the sponsor.
C&C, with guidance of its port engineer, Dave Swihart, completely rebuilt the superstructure and installed all new piping and wiring in the engine room, along with two remanufactured 400 hp. GM 12V-71 main engines and two 40 kw. John Deere generators, all from Penn Detroit Diesel-Allison. The engines have Twin Disc MG514 gears with 5:1 reduction.
The 60- by 20-foot vessel has a fuel capacity of 8,000 gallons and can hold 1,400 gallons of water. Wastewater is treated by a Sea Horse sanitation system. There is a 12-point engine monitoring and alarm system and Halon fire extinguishers.
A dinner-bucket boat, the Bonnie C’s second deck houses a break room for the crew that is trimmed in oak and is furnished with a microwave, sink, refrigerator and television set. The room is fully air conditioned and heated….
Catlettsburg, Ky.—Marathon Petroleum Company officially welcomed the latest addition to its towboat fleet in a christening ceremony held August 24 at the firm’s Catlettsburg, Ky., Marine Repair Terminal. Named Catlettsburg to honor the location of Marathon’s second-largest refinery, the vessel becomes the 10th towboat in the fleet, now comprised of eight line-haul and two harbor boats. The firm’s 168 barges form the largest captive, or proprietary, inland tank barge fleet in the nation.
Peter Evans, marine transportation manager, made the welcoming remarks and introduction of special guests. Doug Sparkman, refining division manager, Catlettsburg Refining LLC, was the keynote speaker. Sparkman joked that he wasn’t sure if the boat was named for the town or for the refinery, and went on to state that the refinery had been a fixture in the area since 1924, noting that it was not only one of the oldest, but one of the largest such facilities in the country.
The Rev. Ann Mills, coordinator of special projects for the Seamen’s Church Institute, Paducah, Ky., was introduced. Mills noted that the definition of “christen” in the dictionary means “to baptize,” and that the word baptize means “to mark with water.” She went on to point out how appropriate it was that the ceremony at hand was for a vessel whose purpose was the moving of goods by water. She then gave the invocation, followed by the presentation of a Bible for the vessel to Capt. Adam Rhoden and relief Capt. Ron Felty.
Cmdr. Kevin Kiefer, commanding officer of Coast Guard Marine Safety Unit Huntington, made a presentation of flags to the vessel, reminding those in attendance that the flag of the United States “represents strength, unity, freedom and inspiration.” He further noted that all gathered at the ceremony had a great respect for the rivers and those who work on them….
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