Page 42: of Marine News Magazine (May 2016)

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INLAND MARINE OPERATIONS barge at the bridge, NO wasn’t an option. We can think this than two people on board.

through a hundred different ways and I bet that 99 times we Sub M will mandate the crew compliment which TSAC would get the same outcome. There was an experienced cap- recommended as one licensed master and one deckhand tain on a good tug. It’ll be close, but it’ll work. The Specialist per 12 hour watch. But would it have mattered here? At tried in vain to prevent the allision. The ultimate price was what point in that situation would you have said to the paid for the effort. deckhand “Let them all go?” Once you let the tug go, there

There were likely not a lot of good options that morn- is nothing holding the barge up, so you would wait until ing once the Tappan Zee Bridge construction site was en- the last second. And then how fast could one person let tered. But, we’ve done it before. It should work. Unfortu- three lines go from one end of an 84-foot tug to the other?

nately, with a three man crew, the mate could only watch A comprehensive Risk Assessment would have involved as the scene unfolded. No one could throw off lines. It’s a voyage plan and a hard look at all the risks involved in important to remember though that current regulation the trip from one end of the navigable Hudson to the allows a towing vessel to be run with one licensed mas- other. Certainly bridge transits would be a part of this as- ter of tow per 12 hour watch – and that’s all. “Years ago, I took a very large barge up the Hudson

No deckhand, no en- gineer, just the Master. with another small boat. We looked at the risks –

The company was not tight areas, recreational and commercial traf? c, required to have more tight turns, head current and limited visibility for each boat. Then we revised our trip as we went north. Bridges were part of it, but bridge transits are part of a captain’s life underway and surely were part of the Specialist’s crews’ assessment.”

May 2016

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