Eastport’s close encounter Cargo ship averts serious trouble after anchor drags

EASTPORT – A Dutch-owned ship filled with nearly 10,000 tons of pulp left for France under its own steam Tuesday, but there were a few anxious moments getting the ship into port on Saturday.

Just before 6 a.m. Saturday, the Alexandergracht was traveling through Head Harbor Passage off the north end of Campobello Island, New Brunswick, on its way to the Federal Marine Terminal at Estes Head in Eastport when something went wrong, U.S. Coast Guard Station Eastport officials said Wednesday.

“They experienced an engine casualty on their way in,” U.S. Coast Guard Chief James Malcolm said. “They dropped their anchor, but that anchor wasn’t holding. So they actually dropped another anchor and they were still dragging a little bit.”

The U.S. Coast Guard was dispatched around 6:10 a.m. There was some concern that the 300-foot-long ship might run aground, but it did not.

“By the time we got there they had enough power to lift their anchors and relocate to a little more of a sheltered anchorage there in Head Harbor Passage,” Malcolm said. “They got the vessel anchored and we had them relocate a little closer to U.S. waters so we could put a Coast Guard inspection team on board to ensure they had corrected all of their casualties and they were safe to continue to moor up at the Federal Marine Terminal.”

Malcolm explained that “it was a propulsion failure and they still did manage, even with the heavy weather, to not go aground.”

Seas were as high as 6 feet and the wind was blowing 20 to 25 knots, according to Malcolm. The ship had no cargo onboard at the time.

“If the second anchor hadn’t held and they were still continuing to drag, it probably would have eventually drifted in close enough to shore to go aground,” Malcolm said.

Ship’s pilot Gerald Morrison, who was at the ship’s helm, explained that his training had served him well in the incident.

“We went through the same-case scenario with an LNG tanker [while training in an LNG simulator],” he said. “During the LNG simulation I had four tugboats. This time I didn’t have any tugboats and we had to use what assets we had, and it worked well.

“And in 300 feet of water there was no way I could run aground,” Morrison said.

Ship’s pilot Bobby Peacock, who also pilots ships into and out of Head Harbor Passage, said Wednesday night that the captain of the Dutch ship told him Morrison had performed extremely well in a tense situation.

“He said that within five minutes [Morrison] had the situation completely under control with the anchors down, he had the tug on its way and he had communicated with … the U.S. and the Canadian coast guards.”

Malcolm said the inspection team from Belfast checked the ship out and deemed it safe to continue into port.

Skip Rogers, general manager of Federal Marine Terminals, said that by 3 p.m. Tuesday the ship finished loading its cargo, pulp from the Domtar Inc. mill in Baileyville, and left under its own steam.

“Everything was done according to exact procedures,” Rogers said.

Because Head Harbor Passage is in Canada, Saturday’s incident drew a response from opponents of large liquefied natural gas tankers traveling through Canadian waters.

“Transport Canada must investigate the recent ship failure in Head Harbor Passage,” Save Passamaquoddy Bay/Canada, said Wednesday. It said the event underscored the dangers of the narrow passage and the need for a federal regulation about the transit of LNG tankers through the passage.

“Greg Thompson [Conservative member of Canada’s Parliament] has stated that Head Harbor Passage is one of the most dangerous passages in Canada – certainly the most dangerous in eastern Canada,” said Jessie Davies, co-chair of SPB/C. “The government needs to take a closer look at the facts surrounding last weekend’s incident in order to ensure future safety in this passage.”

Davies’ concerns were echoed by Save Passamaquoddy Bay’s U.S. spokesman, Bob Godfrey. “This points out that things happen, ships lose power, tugboats lose power, people make errors,” he said.

He said his group planned to speak with the U.S. Coast Guard about what happened. “This is an illustration of how things can go wrong,” he said. “It wasn’t an LNG ship … but it does demonstrate that problems can happen.”

bdncalais@verizon.net

454-8228