Findings Issued in Block Island Ferry Collision

[Soundbounder]

The National Transportation Safety Board recently issued its findings that both a Coast Guard cutter and a Block Island ferry involved in a collision on July 2, 2008, committed errors that led to the accident.

Findings Issued in Coast Guard, Ferry Collision Case | BoatingLocal.com

[hellosailor]

Boating Local says the USCG Morro Bay is a "Coast Guard Cutter" while Jane's say it is a "Ship type - "Bay" class tug/tender". The source artcile on TheDay also calls it a cutter.

From the picture on Boating Local, it sure LOOKS like a tender. Must be landlubbers writing that stuff.

"The Coast Guard promised to use fog signals " Well gee, isn't that peachy keen?! The USCG and a commercial ferry service, neither of them keeping watch or using fog signals....This begs for Tom Clancy to tell us what really was happening out there. "Give me one ping, and one ping only" no doubt? (VBG)

[Soundbounder]

Originally Posted by hellosailor

Boating Local says the USCG Morro Bay is a "Coast Guard Cutter" while Jane's say it is a "Ship type - "Bay" class tug/tender". The source artcile on TheDay also calls it a cutter.

From the picture on Boating Local, it sure LOOKS like a tender. Must be landlubbers writing that stuff.

"The 140-foot Bay-class Cutters are state of the art icebreakers used primarily for domestic ice breaking duties."

USCGC MORRO BAY (WTGB-106)

SOUNDBOUNDER: USCGC Morro Bay

[Soundbounder]

FB page for USCGC Morro Bay:

https://www.facebook.com/USCGC.Morro.Bay?sk=info

NTSB Report:
Collision Between U.S. Passenger Ferry M/V Block Island
and U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Morro Bay
Block Island Sound, Rhode Island
July 2, 2008

http://www.ntsb.gov/publictn/2011/MAR1101.pdf

[hellosailor]

Yes, apparenrly the USCG says it is a cutter but a most peculiar use of the term:

USCG: About Us - Aircraft & Cutters

Aircraft, Boats, and Cutters: Cutters
140-foot Icebreaking Tug (WTGB) - Bay Class
The 140-foot Bay-class Cutters are state of the art icebreakers used primarily for domestic ice breaking duties. They are named after American Bays and are stationed mainly in Northeast U.S. and Great Lakes.

This in contrast to the term "cutter" as most of us know it:
United States Coast Guard Cutter - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A somewhat sleeker vessel, most definitely not an icebreaking tug and tender! I'm betting someone said "We're sending you to the Aleutians, but don't worry, this isn't a punishment, we're assigning you to a full Cutter." No doubt someone got official Papal Dispensation to lump that into the "cutter" class.

Yeah, sure. And it was still...on what, buoy tending duty out there, wasn't it?

Cutter may be technically correct--but I don't think ANYONE wold mistake that for a cutter, unless they were a USCG member who'd served aboard one.

[Soundbounder]

Must be landlubbers writing that stuff.

:whistl

[Curmudgeon]

Someone's Coast Guard career is probably over. I sail to Block Island frequently, and those big ferries make a very good sized blip on the radar. There's no excuse for hitting one.

[doug86]

Originally Posted by Curmudgeon

Someone's Coast Guard career is probably over. I sail to Block Island frequently, and those big ferries make a very good sized blip on the radar. There's no excuse for hitting one.

HA! You don't understand the modern Coast Guard. The Coast Guard protects its own; no one was even disciplined much less lost a career.

Text of official USCG press release:
BOSTON – The commanding officer of Coast Guard Cutter Morro Bay will remain in command today following the review of an administrative investigation regarding the collision between the Morro Bay and a Block Island ferry July 2, 2008.
Admiral Dale Gabel, the commander of the First Coast Guard District, presided over an Admiral’s Mast in which he determined that Lt. Douglas Wyatt will remain in command.
“After reviewing all of the facts of this case, I have confidence in Lt. Wyatt’s ability to command the Morro Bay and carry out the Coast Guard’s missions,” said Gabel.

Morro Bay commanding officer to remain in command after investigation | Coast Guard News
or
https://professionalmariner.com/ME2/...BA90C146EE4A6F

[Curmudgeon]

For all we know, the commanding officer might have been asleep in his bunk below. The question is, who was the watch officer at the time of the collision?

[doug86]

Originally Posted by Curmudgeon

For all we know, the commanding officer might have been asleep in his bunk below. The question is, who was the watch officer at the time of the collision?

Crum, To say "for all we know" as if we were limited to conjecture on this topic is silly; if you read the NTSB report, those questions you pose are clearly answered. Yes, the Commanding Officer had just returned to the bridge at the time of the collision.

From the NTSB report:

...the commanding officer returned to the bridge, and the chief began briefing him about the situation. While the chief was informing the commanding officer about the steps he had taken after observing the powerboat [not the ferry], the two men heard a prolonged whistle blast off the starboard side. According to the chief, it was the first whistle anyone on the bridge of the Morro Bay had heard during the transit and it came about 10–20 seconds after the commanding officer returned to the bridge. The two men made their way to the starboard side and saw the Block Island emerging from the fog, about 50–100 yards away. The chief pulled back on the throttles and ordered the helmsman to put the wheel to full port rudder.

[Curmudgeon]

I stand corrected. Weren't they looking at their radar?

[Soundbounder]

Story in the Block Island Times

Ferry and Coast Guard share blame for 2008 collision - Pippa Jack - Block Island Times - News, Classifieds, Events and Business in Block Island, RI