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ly depending on the circumstances and communications received from approaching vessels via marine radio. Seeing that the bridge was in the down position as he approached, the captain judged that he could make it un- der the bridge without problems.? It was daylight; weather conditions were favorable with an ebb current and four nautical miles visibility. The towboat passed under the railroad bridge with no problem, but as the ? exi? oat spud barge being towed astern was proceeding underneath the bridge, the spuds on the barge came in contact with the lower railroad steel beam of the bridge, resulting in damages to the spuds. 20/20 HINDSIGHTWhile the captain was assessing damage to the barge and attending to other onboard safety issues, like ? ooding and pollution, the bridge operator reported the incident to the Coast Guard which contacted the captain for con? rmation that his tow had struck the bridge. The pilot con? rmed the allision and reported that the lower two bolts of the forward spud well bent over but were still in the well, and the aft spud wells upper bolts broke, causing the aft spud and well to bend backwards. He further reported no damage to his vessel or, to the best of his knowledge, the railroad bridge. He promptly reported the incident to his license insurer and was immediately assigned a local maritime attorney who assisted in the completion and submission of the Ma- rine Casualty Report (2692) and subsequently accompa- nied the river pilot to his Coast Guard interview. The meeting was short; the licensed master was charged with negligence for both failing to check and verify the height/draft of the barges spuds, and failing to request the operator to raise the bridge. He was then offered a Settle- ment Agreement stipulating an outright 3-month license suspension with an additional 9-month probationary pe- riod following the completion of his beach time. After debating the merits of contesting the terms of the Settlement Agreement, both the captain and his attorney agreed that, given the absence of mitigating circumstances, the most prudent, yet painful, decision was to accept the suspension with probation offer. Because he had wisely opted for income protection on his license insurance policy, he received his insured wages for the duration of his suspension, but no amount of mon-ey could compensate the hit to his professional reputation caused by two ? eeting lapses in judgment: not verifying the spuds height and/or not requesting the bridge to be raised. Since we began this column with an upbeat quote from Mark Twain, its only ? tting that we go back a little further in time to ancient Greece and the sobering yet thoughtful words of Sophocles: Men of ill judgment oft ignore the good that lies within their hands, till they have lost it.? Randy ONeill is Senior Vice President with Lancer Insurance Company and has been Manag- er of its MOPS Marine License Insurance division since 1984. Over the past 29 years, Mr. ONeill has spoken and written on many occasions on the impor-tance of USCG license protection. He is a regular con- tributor to MarineNews magazine. He can reached at: [email protected] www.marinelink.com MN 21MN Sept2013 Layout 18-31.indd 218/29/2013 11:12:27 AM