Page 143: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (September 1993)

Freighter and Two Tugs Collide; Ignites

Geyser Of Jet Fuel

A freighter and two tugs collided on the morning of August 10 in the main channel leading to Tampa,

Florida, igniting a geyser of jet fuel and leaking fuel oil into the water.

According to the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG), the 400-foot freighter Balsa 37, the tug Sea Farer and its gaso- line-carrying barge Ocean 255, and the tug Capt. Fred J. Bouchard and its barge the Bouchard No. 155, col- lided just outside the Sunshine Sky- way Bridge at the mouth of the 35- mile channel leading from Egmont

Key to the Port of Tampa.

The Sea Farer's barge, Ocean 255, had been carrying approximately 10,000,000 gallons of jet A fuel. The fuel ignited into a geyser of flame that burned for at least a day. Eleven crewmembers were taken from the various vessels to nearby Egmont

Key. No one was seriously injured.

The barge Bouchard No. 155 be- gan leaking no. 6 fuel oil, and the resulting slick eventually reached five miles long and hundreds of yards wide before crews could contain it with an oil boom. The 400-foot bulk carrier Balsa 37, which was hauling phosphate, was damaged and had to be run aground at Mullet Key to prevent its sinking.

Bouchard Transportation, whose tug and barge were involved in the collision, was cooperating with local

USCG authorities in the clean-up effort. Bouchard Transportation ac- tivated its emergency response cen- ter in Hicksville, on Long Island,

N.Y., and then dispatched a team for Tampa led by John Johnson, a former USCG officer who is the firm's vice president for Environmental

Marine Affairs. The team included members from the Spill Response

Management Corporation. By mid- afternoon, more than 160 experi- enced clean-up workers were mobi- lized by Bouchard, and 3,000 feet of boom deployed with another 40,000 feet of boom on stand-by, said Mr.

Bouchard, who is coordinating the firm's response effort.

As oil spill clean-up measures continue, a Claims Service Center has been established in St. Peters- burg to handle claims arising from the incident. Anyone who believes they may have a claim in connection with the incident may call (813) 363- 7708, or (813) 363-7608.

Mr. Bouchard also made a con- tribution to the Pinellas Seabird

Rehabilitation Center to facilitate their efforts to clean affected birds.

Ulstein Opens New Service

Station In Florida

Ulstein USA Inc. has opened a new Service Station in Port

Canaveral, Fla. This is Ulstein's third location in the U.S. - added to

Seattle and New Orleans.

Ulstein USA's president, Leif

Borresen, predicts a further ex- pansion of the company's activity in the U.S. The Norwegian-based cor- poration also has a propeller fac- tory located in Vancouver, Canada, with a branch office in Halifax, apart from several companies in 10 other countries. All firms are working within the marine industry. The new Florida-based Ulstein Service

Station will initially be staffed by two service engineers covering all

Southeastern ports of the U.S., as well as Caribbean Islands. Contact the new facility at: Ulstein USA

Inc., Port Canaveral Service Sta- tion, P.O. Box 0907, Port Canaveral,

Fla. 32920-0907; tel: (407) 799- 8384; fax: (407) 799-8385.

Peterson Builders Conduct- ing Metrication Workshop

As part of the National Ship- building Research Program project, "Introduction of Metrication into

U.S. Shipbuilding" is being con- ducted by Peterson Builders of Stur- geon Bay, Wis. The workshop fo- cuses on metrication issues for the shipbuilding industry and will be held Nov. 1,1993, in Williamsburg,

Va. Subjects addressed will be: Gov- ernment Policy; Market Forces; Sup- plying Metric Material; Obstacles to Metrication, Material Acquisi- tion; Tool Conversion; Training;

Building a Metric Ship, the U.S.

Shipowner's Perspective; and Inter- national Issues Facing U.S. Ship- builders. The workshop is being ar- ranged by the University of Michi- gan Transportation Research Insti- tute, Marine Systems Division, and is scheduled just prior to the SNAME

Ship Production Symposium in

Williamsburg, running November 2- 4, 1993. Interested parties should contact A1 Horsmon at the Univer- sity of Michigan, tel: (313) 764-5308.

Kvaerner Sells High-Speed

Ship To Korean Firm

Norwegian engineering, offshore and shipbuilding group Kvaerner AS said its Kvaerner Fjellstrand Pte.

Ltd. in Singapore sold a high-speed passenger catamaran to Nam Hae

Express Co. of Korea. The contract is worth approximately $5 million.

The 131-foot vessel, with a service speed of 35 knots, will reportedly be delivered in April 1994. The 350- passenger catamaran will operate on a route between the city of Mokpo and Hongdo Island off Korea's south- west coast.

Once Secret Stealth Ship

Cruises San Francisco

One of the U.S. Navy's "stealth" ships, called Sea Shadow, began a series of shakedown cruises in San

Francisco Bay. The 160-foot vessel rides -on pontoons and has an angu- lar shape that hides it from radar.

Lockheed Missiles & Space Co. built the $50 million test ship in the mid- 1980s inside the Hughes Mining

Barge in Redwood City.

Intl. Power Machines Wins $2 Million Navy Contract

International Power Machines

Corp. (PWR) claims it has received a contract to supply the Department of the Navy with 15 kVA-100 kVA three-phase uninterruptible power systems, spare parts, ancillary equipment and installation services for worldwide applications. The

Navy is not obligated to buy prod- ucts from this $2 million contract.

The contract has a duration of one year with two optional extensions.

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