River Pilot's Jealousy Linked To Massive Oil Spill
Date: 19-Dec-08
Country: US
Author: Chris Baltimore
River Pilot's Jealousy Linked To Massive Oil Spill Photo: Sean Gardner
Members of the Coast Guard attempt to contain a fuel oil spill in the
Mississippi River at the Port of New Orleans, Louisiana July 24, 2008.
Photo: Sean Gardner
HOUSTON - A river pilot's jealousy sparked a chain of unfortunate events
that led to July's massive oil spill that shut down a long stretch of the
Mississippi River near New Orleans.
That's according to testimony in New Orleans on Thursday by the master pilot
who should have been at the wheel of a tugboat that steered an oil barge
into an oncoming ship on July 23, but was chasing down his girlfriend
instead.
According to The New Orleans Times-Picayune newspaper, master pilot Terry
Carver testified that on July 20 his nephew called to tell him that he had
spotted Carver's girlfriend riding around in another man's truck, and Carver
struck off to Illinois to investigate.
Carver's departure left apprentice mate John Bavaret in charge of the
towboat Mel Oliver, which on July 23 steered a barge into the tanker
Tintomara, spilling 420,000 gallons of fuel oil into the river.
Carver was following the progress of the tugboat via cell phone and was
informed by a deck hand that "they got hit by a ship," Carver said,
according to The Times-Picayune report.
The collision shut down a 97-mile stretch of the key commercial trading link
for days as the U.S. Coast Guard scrambled to clean up a scrim of
foul-smelling fuel oil.
Coast Guard spokesman Stephen Lehmann in New Orleans said the tugboat
operator had only an apprentice mate's license, and no one else on the
vessel had a license to operate the boat on the river. To pilot a tugboat,
the operator should have had a master's license, Lehmann said.
(Reporting by HOUSTON (Reuters) - A river pilot's jealousy sparked a chain
of unfortunate events that led to July's massive oil spill that shut down a
long stretch of the Mississippi River near New Orleans.
That's according to testimony in New Orleans on Thursday by the master pilot
who should have been at the wheel of a tugboat that steered an oil barge
into an oncoming ship on July 23, but was chasing down his girlfriend
instead.
According to The New Orleans Times-Picayune newspaper, master pilot Terry
Carver testified that on July 20 his nephew called to tell him that he had
spotted Carver's girlfriend riding around in another man's truck, and Carver
struck off to Illinois to investigate.
Carver's departure left apprentice mate John Bavaret in charge of the
towboat Mel Oliver, which on July 23 steered a barge into the tanker
Tintomara, spilling 420,000 gallons of fuel oil into the river.
Carver was following the progress of the tugboat via cell phone and was
informed by a deck hand that "they got hit by a ship," Carver said,
according to The Times-Picayune report.
The collision shut down a 97-mile stretch of the key commercial trading link
for days as the U.S. Coast Guard scrambled to clean up a scrim of
foul-smelling fuel oil.
Coast Guard spokesman Stephen Lehmann in New Orleans said the tugboat
operator had only an apprentice mate's license, and no one else on the
vessel had a license to operate the boat on the river. To pilot a tugboat,
the operator should have had a master's license, Lehmann said.
(Editing by Jim Marshall; editing by Jim Marshall
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