Ethan Allen disaster could have been prevented

The sinking recently of the excursion boat Ethan Allen, with the drowning of 21 passengers, made clear that passenger vessel safety cannot be ignored. The regulations the U.S. Coast Guard has in place to ensure the safety of most passenger vessels are a good thing and if they’d been applied to the Ethan Allen, the tragedy could have been prevented.

I have worked in the commercial marine industry for 27 years, as captain, mate, engineer, bosun and deckhand of boats ranging from 35-foot lobster boats to 700-foot tankers, including many passenger vessels.

In 1993, I was looking for an alternative to working on tankers. My first child had been born the year before, and I’d been at sea for more than half his life. One idea was buying a passenger boat and operating out of Belfast, where I live. A good boat called the Balmy Days came up for sale, although she needed lots of work. I scraped together the money to buy her and then spent the winter rebuilding decks, deckhouses and wiring.

Before our first passenger came aboard we had to renew the Balmy Days’ Coast Guard certificate. For two days a gang of Coast Guard inspectors swarmed over the boat, poking, prodding and shining bright lights into dim corners.

The final step was to conduct an “inclining experiment.” First we measured the hull’s “freeboard,” the distance from the water to the deck edge. Because I was applying for a certificate to carry 49 passengers, we loaded on board enough sacks of cement to equal their weight. We put all the weight in the middle of the boat, and measured the freeboard again. Then we moved the weight out to the edge of the boat, as if the passengers had all rushed to one side. As we moved the weight, the boat tipped more and more. Once all the weight was piled on the rail we measured the freeboard a third time, then did the calculations that proved the Balmy Days had plenty of stability.

“Stability” is the tendency of a hull to float upright in the water. This is not the same as “buoyancy,” which describes a hull’s ability to float. By way of example, a log may float well because it has plenty of buoyancy. But it’s as happy to float with one side up as the other, because it has very little stability.

An inclining experiment is required for every commercial passenger vessel operating on the navigable waters of the United States. Any time a vessel is modified, the inclining experiment has to be done again.

The Coast Guard’s concern with stability is founded in grim history. In 1915, the passenger steamer Eastland tipped under the weight of passengers on her upper decks. When her rail went under she flooded and sank while still tied to the dock in Chicago. More than 800 passengers drowned.

This disaster, along with a fire on the New York steamer General Slocum that killed 1,020 people in 1904, and the sinking of the Titanic in 1912 led to stricter safety standards on passenger vessels. Since 1946 the Coast Guard has been responsible for passenger vessel safety.

One of the few exceptions is vessels that operate in lakes not considered “navigable.” For example, the Hudson River is navigable because it flows into the ocean. Lake Champlain is navigable, because it is connected to the Hudson River by a canal. Even though Lake George is barely a mile from Lake Champlain, passenger boats operating there are inspected by the state of New York, not the Coast Guard.

Poor standards are the simple explanation for why the passenger boat Ethan Allen sank on Lake George. New York apparently never required an inclining experiment on the Ethan Allen, either when she was first put into service or after she was modified with a heavier cabin that made her top-heavy. Without enough stability for her passenger load, she tipped, flooded and sank. Twenty-one people drowned.

So who will be at fault in the Ethan Allen disaster? The captain, who’s ultimately responsible for his vessel’s safety? The owner, who holds the purse and makes decisions? Or the state, which issued a certificate showing the Ethan Allen was safe? One pretty sure bet is that there will be lawsuits flying thick and fast.

The quickest way to improve safety on passenger vessels operating on state waters is to make them comply with Coast Guard standards. Any state could require that. Right now Maine has no standards at all for passenger vessels on state waters. For a vessel like the historic steamer Katahdin on Moosehead Lake, the only oversight comes from the insurance company that writes their policy.

That may not be such a bad system. After all, it’s the insurer who’s on the hook for real money if something bad happens, an incentive to see that the boat is seaworthy and competently operated. As long as every passenger boat is required to have insurance, this could be a path to safety without setting up an entire new state bureaucracy.

At least it’s better than New York, where Gov. George Pataki is busy proposing laws requiring drug tests after an accident. The deaths of those unfortunate people were caused by a tippy boat, not a tipsy captain.

Capt. Stephen Olson of Belfast has held a U.S. Coast Guard Master’s license for 21 years, and has owned or operated several inspected passenger vessels. He also works as an independent marine surveyor, and has inspected and surveyed more than 100 passenger vessels. He is a regular contributor to National Fisherman magazine.