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After 15 minutes of peering out the wheelhouse door a channel buoy loomed out of the dark and snow but it was so coated with ice there was no number or light visible to tell us which buoy it was. It was then decided that finding the ship was impossible on such a night, so without regret we turned the tug and ran downwind back to the dock. The engineer found his car engine frozen solid and had to find a taxi, luckily my car started and despite heavy snow on the roads, and a stop to avoid a white-out,  I arrived home the following afternoon.

The ship remained aground for many days until tugs were able to re-float her.

The damage suffered did not prevent the ship from continuing to Quebec City where I boarded to conduct my inquiry. The conditions in the channel on the late afternoon the cargo vessel grounded were similar to those I had experienced that same night, except that they had occurred in daylight rather than in darkness. The channel buoys were bearded with ice so the visual identification was impossible. just as we had later found. While approaching a turn in the channel the captain was not able to identify the buoy to turn on and ran too far leaving the channel entirely and grounding on a reef In my report I found the captain had made an unfortunate error caused by extreme weather conditions and the lack of an available anchorage in which to seek shelter which gave him no option but to continue.

B.C. Coastal Casualties

My next job took me to the west coast to investigate the loss of two vessels and a barge loaded with equipment in northern BC waters. The crews were saved and had returned home. I first interviewed. a deckhand from the tug in a Powell River hotel. He was still badly shaken by the experience but over a glass of beer was able to recall the events that led up to the disaster.

He was employed by a logger who had decided to carry out a risky log salvage operation off the beaches and islands at the north end of Queen Charlotte Sound.

In these waters a permit is not required to salvage logs whereas further south the law is strictly enforced.

The logger had dispatched a tug and a barge loaded with expensive logging equipment to be landed on the beach to gather and stack the logs. He also sent a fish boat along to supply and transport the crews. The personnel were located two on the tug, two

and a dog on the fish boat and two men operating beach equipment.

Once the logs had been gathered and stacked on a beach, they were to be formed into a boom and towed to a mill far to the south.

The operation was scheduled to be completed by the end of September, when they would head south with the logs in tow, but a weather report was received warning of an impending gale. The logger loaded his equipment onto the barge to be towed by the fish boat, and the tug with the log boom in tow headed south to find shelter until the storm subsided.

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Unfortunately they assumed the storm would be late arriving and were caught in open water by an early and violent fall gale.

Soon both the fish boat and tug had to release their tows which they could no longer control, and they were fighting for survival in the wild seas. The vessels tried to stay in sight of one another but eventually both started taking more water onboard than their pumps could handle, and the sea condition reduced visibility so that visual contact was lost. This situation continued for some time when the fish boat received a distress call to say the tug was sinking and the crew intended to abandon ship. The fish boat then proceed towards the last location tug and on locating her made a successful attempt to remove the three crew members.

It was not long before the fish boat started to founder and sent out a distress call that was intercepted by a southbound Alaska ferry a few miles away. The ferry increased speed and was able to locate the fish boat in a sinking condition and removed the six crewmembers but in the ensuing confusion the dog was overlooked.

It was many hours later that a passing vessel observed the half submerged fish boat and reported seeing a dog on deck which they were able to rescue, but could find no trace of the crew.

The events as related by the tug master and the logging company owner matched that of the deckhand I had interviewed, which made my job much easier. No trace of the tug, fishing vessel, barge & equipment or logs were found to dispute their story. Luckily all hands survived, including the dog.

Other trips to the West Coast included an inquiry into a ferry grounding in Active Pass. The ferry made regular trips between Vancouver and Nanaimo carrying truck trailers. On entering Active pass, westbound, at night there was a strong wind and ebb tide following the ferry, considerably increasing the actual speed. This caused the captain to overshoot the first turning point and the vessel to swing 100 far towards the shore, going aground before the engines could be reversed. The captain was at fault for not taking the prevailing tide and weather conditions into account and adjusting his speed accordingly.  No loss of life or injuries occurred but the ferry was laid up for some time for repairs. As a result the captain’s company relieved him of his command

Arctic Casualty

In the summer I flew to Frobisher Bay on Baffin Island in the Eastern Arctic to look into the grounding of a large Arctic supply vessel. Never having been into the Arctic this was a unique experience. I was given a cabin on an icebreaker, at anchor in the harbour, named the N.B. McLean, and the use of the ship’s heHcopter.

First I was flown over to view the stranded vessel that was sitting high and dry on a smooth rock about 10 feet above the water.

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The helicopter landed on the rock so that I was able to walk around the ship to view the damage. Fortunately the ship had suffered no damage, but was delayed on the rock until the next 40 foot tide would float it off in about ten days. When floated off the ship then had to unload cargo before proceeding, which caused further delay in supplying remote outposts before winter freeze-up

After interviewing the Captain and checking the leading lights for entering the harbor it became apparent that the Coast Guard maintained lights had not functioned properly.  Instead of the two lights in line providing a safe course for the vessel to steer through the harbor entrance dangers, only one 1ight functioned which did not provide the safe range line causing the vessel to stray into danger and onto a submerged rock.

The master was not found to be at fault because the Coast Guard was responsible for the operation of the navigation marks. There were two Coast Guard icebreakers at anchor in the harbor approaches, neither of which noticed the faulty leading lights.

Frobisher Bay has large tidal ranges that leave long expanses of sandy beaches at low water. Ships position themselves over the sand at high tide and are stranded high and dry at low tide for discharging cargo onto the beach. This saves having to build jetties that are easily damaged by winter ice.

The experience was a lesson to me on the difficulties that could be expected in the arctic, and the dependence on the outside shared by all who work and live in northern latitudes.

Squat in the Seaway

Squat is a term used by mariners to describe the increase in draft of a moving vessel when proceeding through shallow water, i.e.. less than one metre (3 feet) clearance under the keel. As the speed increases, the vessel settles deeper into the water.

This condition caused extensive damage to a fine new chemical tanker on her maiden voyage from Montreal down the St. Lawrence river, heading for Europe.

I was called to investigate the situation in Quebec when the tanker arrived.

The navigation had been in the charge of a pilot who had underestimated the lower than usual river level and squat effect of the ship’s speed resulting in a gash 200 feet long in the tanker’s bottom plating. The pilot received a reprimand, but the young captain lost his position for not bringing the pilot’s attention to the tanker’s squat characteristics.

An Atlantic Tragedy

The most unusual casualty involved a rush trip to New York harbor to interview the master of an American ship that was arriving in port after salvaging an abandoned vessel off Newfoundland.

The salvaged ship was a specialized type of vessel designed to carry heavy railroad engines between North America and Europe. The vessel was equipped with two heavy lift derricks capable of lifting 75 tons each. Also, special wing ballast tanks were fitted to take on water for the trips when the vessel ran light to pick up cargo.

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In the hold a portable tank was located to be swung over the opposite side, when the engine was being loaded, to compensate for the engine’s weight. This tank was filled with an amount of water equal to the weight of the load. When proceeding between ports the portable tank was secured in the hold.

The heavy lift ship had been traveling from Europe to Montreal to load engines when it became involved in a major winter gale 200 miles south of Newfoundland.

Being light and running with ballast the ship rolled heavily in the increasing swells, so much so that the portable tank in the hold broke free and punctured one of the wing ballast tanks. The released water caused the ship to take on a significant list towards the undamaged side. As the storm increased in intensity the violent motion of the ship caused the list to increase at times to over forty degrees, thoroughly alarming the captain and crew of twelve.

The terror that was felt the crew can only be imagined.

In their minds they had two choices: remain onboard and drown when the ship capsized, as it surely appeared it would, or leave the security of their ship and possessions and risk life climbing off the heaving ship and huddling in a tiny fragile air-inflated f1oat that was totally at the mercy of wind, sea, and freezing cold. The huge waves made it obvious that no outside rescue could be attempted until daylight arrived and the wind and sea died down. But by that time the ship would be gone.

The captain was so certain the ship would founder, he sent out a radio distress call and ordered the crew to abandon ship. As the only usable escape equipment were life rafts , one was quickly launched with eight men onboard. It was launched on the downwind side of the ship, but the ship lifted on a wave and fell on the raft catching it under the stern capsizing it and drowning the men under the weight of the ship.

The remaining five men observed this with horror, but managed to get the other raft launched well clear on a line astern before donning lifejackets,  jumping overboard and climbing onto the raft. The wind by this time was so strong that it tore off the protective canopy on the raft exposing all to the icy wind and snow. The distress call had been received by Search and Rescue, Halifax and a patrol aircraft was immediately dispatched to find the ship and report. The ship was located and kept under observation during the night. When the crew were seen in the raft, extra equipment was dropped close by. Unfortunately the survivors were too cold and sick to be able to recover it.

The American vessel remained close to the distress area during the night but was unable to assist the raft for fear of capsizing it.

The raft remained afloat during the night but by daylight the American ship nearby was able to rescue only two living persons from it. The other three crewmembers were missing and presumed dead