THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, April 21, 1995 TAG: 9504210488
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B4 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JACK DORSEY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 72 lines
A tugboat operator, charged with failing to notify the Coast Guard for more than 12 hours that his barge had sunk nearly on top of the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel, is claiming that he thought someone else had made the call.
William S. Mowbray, fighting to keep his mariner's license, is accused of five Coast Guard violations after the Feb. 21 sinking of a barge that had another tugboat as part of its cargo.
Mowbray, of Jersey City, N.J., made his claim Wednesday during a Coast Guard administrative hearing on the charges. A federal magistrate who heard the testimony has taken the case under advisement and will make a determination in about four weeks.
Meanwhile, salvage crews managed to raise the barge and its tug cargo Thursday afternoon, using the heavy-lift crane Sampson. Strong currents and broken equipment have hampered the salvage efforts for nearly two months.
The sinking forced a three-hour closing of the main shipping channel in Hampton Roads until the wreck was located on the Hampton side of the channel, a mile west of Old Point Comfort.
One Coast Guard official, testifying at Mowbray's hearing, said the wreck could have caused a major maritime calamity if another deep-draft vessel had struck it.
The 135-foot-long steel barge was carrying a 42-foot, 20-ton steel tug named the Ecco III when it went down.
Mowbray, of Mowbray Tug and Barge of Jersey City, N.J., faces purely civil penalities if convicted. He could be fined and lose his operator's license.
The Coast Guard has charged him with negligence in failing to notify the Coast Guard of a hazardous situation; a second count of failing to notify the Coast Guard of the occurrence of a marine casualty; and various violations of regulations, including employing an unlicensed deckhand; not having a random drug testing program in effect for his crew; and not having his mariner's license posted aboard.
Mowbray, the only witness in his defense, testified that he immediately called his uncle by telephone at his company's New Jersey office to report the accident, telling him to contact a salvage company and the Coast Guard.
While Mowbray was the tug's master for the trip, he said he left the wheelhouse of his tug, the Ticonderoga, to chop through the towing hawser as the barge sank.
During those few minutes, said Mowbray, his first mate, who remained in the wheelhouse, should have called the Coast Guard.
But calling his uncle from that far away does not count, said Judge Peter Fitzpatrick, the administrative law judge presiding over the case. Mowbray should have called the Coast Guard himself.
Fitzpatrick indicated his concern in a retort to Mowbray's attorney, Patrick Brogan, who questioned the relevance of certain Coast Guard allegations.
``You don't think dragging a sinking barge over an automobile tunnel is relevant?'' asked Fitzpatrick.
The accident occurred about 9:30 p.m. Feb. 21 as the Ticonderoga was towing the barge, with the tug lashed inside. Being towed behind that was a crane barge that did not sink, but broke away and drifted toward Willoughby Bay before it could be recovered.
Crew members testified that they first noticed the bow of the barge riding high in the water about 8 p.m., meaning its stern was sinking. They were about a mile east of the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel.
About 9:30 p.m., while just crossing the automobile tunnel, Mowbray was trying to find a place to beach the barge when he directed a searchlight beam at the tow, said First Mate Fred H. Pontin.
``Twelve minutes later it sank,'' he said.
The sinking went undetected by authorities until shortly after 10 a.m. the next day, when Mowbray called the Coast Guard. by CNB