We have all heard about the marine incident that occurred near the Bolivar Intersection on March 22, 2014. A loaded, two barge red flag tow departing from Texas City was hit by an inbound ship as it was crossing the intersection of the Houston Ship Channel, the Intracoastal Canal and the Texas City Ship Channel. A ruptured cargo tank on one of the barges allowed a spill of about 4000 barrels of heavy fuel oil. The HSC was closed for about four days during spill cleanup operations.

 

 An investigation of the cause of the incident is ongoing and the official report from the National Transportation Safety Board will be months, if not years away.

  

 But for now with what little we know about the incident, what observations can we make that can help us reinforce safe navigation in our operation?

 

 
 

Let's start with a look at the conditions. Reports from several Higman boats in the area described patchy fog, a flood tide through the intersection and light winds out of the east. Viability reported by the ship pilot involved, was about a mile just before the collision.

What are our lessons?

 

Live by the Rules:

 

Rule 2 of the Navigation Rules state that nothing shall exonerate the vessel from complying with the rules and that the vessel must take action to avoid collision even if there is deviation from the rules.

 

Rule 6 covers safe speed. It requires the vessel operator to always proceed at a safe speed in the prevailing conditions so effective action to avoid collision can be taken. Two minutes before the collision, the inbound ship was moving at 12.9 kts.   At that speed, the ship will cover 1nm every 4.6 minutes. With the visibility at 1 mile, the ship at 607 ft will cover that distance in 10 lengths. Is that enough time to respond if an unforeseen object comes out of the fog?

 

Always operate at a speed that will allow for evasive action to avoid a collision.

  

Have an escape plan.

 

In any underway situation, a wheelman must always think ahead. With that comes the responsibility to have an escape plan ready to go. Entering a lock, docking in a tight situation or transiting a bridge; what is your plan if something is not right? In the case of this towboat operator, his escape plan was poorly formulated. With a flood tide working against the head of his tow, the chance to make a 90 degree turn in a short span was slim to none.

 

Use all available means.

  

Your wheelhouse is loaded with tools that can help you safely navigate. In this collision case, avoidance action started way too late to make much of a difference. Were the wheelhouse operators using all the tools at their disposal? Communication between the two vessels started only about two minutes before the collision. How was the radars used onboard? How was the chart plotters used to determine if a safe crossing was possible?

 

Was there any communication with the Houston VTS system to understand the traffic situation and to help make the crossing decision?

 

Understand the area being transited.

 

The Bolivar Intersection is said to be the second busiest crossing in the world. With 5 different channels meeting, do we give this area enough respect or is it taken for granted? Of course this goes with many of the other areas we transit.

 

Develop a tight Voyage Plan.

 

We talk about our voyage plans all the time. This is a reminder that a tight, well researched and well written voyage plan is always important. Did the towboat crew have a current plan that documented the weather conditions? If a proper voyage plan was available to the wheelman on watch that day, might he have stayed put until the fog cleared out? Would he have read that there would be a strong flood tide at the intersection?

 

 

What Does It All Mean?

 

In the March 5, 2014 Training Newsletter we discussed the purpose of a MSDS and" Your Right to Know." In this article we will begin to cover the different sections of the MSDS and what each section is, what information is required, and how it relates to your safety and knowledge of the hazardous chemical.

 

We also discussed that there are two optional MSDS's that may be used. The 8 section OSHA MSDS and the 16 section ASNI version. We will use the 16 section MSDS because that is what the majority of chemical manufacturers are using now. It will also be the standard when OSHA requires its implementation in June 2015. It will be known as the SDS (Safety Data Sheet).

 

The 16 Sections are:

1. Identification of the product
2.  Hazard(s) identification
3. Composition/information on Ingredients
4. First Aid measures
5. Firefighting measures
6. Accidental Release measures
7. Handling and storage
8. Exposure control/personal protection
9. Physical and chemical properties
10. Stability and reactivity
11. Toxicological information
12. Ecological information
13. Disposal considerations
14. Transport information
15. Regulatory information
16. Other information

 

We will discuss the first 4 sections of a MSDS in this Newsletter. The MSDS will be for starting fluid for a skiff. You can find this MSDS and other MSDS for products and paint that are commonly used on your boat in the Higman Boats page on our Intranet site.

  

Section 1 - IDENTIFICATION

 

This section lists the product name, chemical name, or generic name of the substance, it will have a product number used by the manufacturer and it will have the manufacturer's address/phone number and a number for emergencies.

 

Product Name - Jump Start Starting Fluid with Lubricity.

Product Number - 05671, 75671

Manufacturer - CRC Industries, 885 Louise Drive, Warminster PA 18974, (800-272-4620)

24-HR Emergency - CHEMTREC: (800) 424-9300 OR (703) 527-387 (For transport emergencies)

 

Section 2: HAZARDS IDENTIFICATION

 

This section will provide an overview of the substance which will be used by emergency responders. It will also have information on the immediate and long term health effects of the product on the body.

 

Emergency Overview

DANGER: Extremely Flammable, Harmful or Fatal if Swallowed. Vapor Harmful. Contents Under Pressure. As defined by OSHA's Hazard Communication, this product is hazardous.

Appearance & Odor: Clear liquid, ether odor

 

Potential Health Effects:

ACUTE EFFECTS: (Immediate effects upon exposure to substance)

EYE: May Cause moderate eye irritation and moderate corneal injury.

SKIN: Prolonged contact may cause irritation, defatting of skin

IHALATION: May cause nose and throat irritation. May cause nervous system depression such as headache, dizziness, nausea, staggering gait, confusion, and unconsciousness. Intentional misuse by deliberately concentrating and inhaling the contents may be harmful or fatal.

INGESTION: If aspired into lungs, it may be rapidly absorbed through the lungs and result in gastro-intestinal distress.

 

The MSDuses natural biological action to breakdown the human waste and other organic materials.   

Periodically inspect the tank vent outlet, located outside the house; is there a flow of air coming from the vent? 

Good ideas need to be shared, refined and become "Best Practices". A "Best Practice" is defined as a method or technique which shows results superior to those achieved with other means, and that is used as a benchmark.  In addition, a "Best Practice" can evolve to become better as improvements are discovered.

 

 

  

If you looked up at the night sky between 1-2:30 am early Tuesday, you may have noticed the moon being a red/orange color.  This was a full lunar eclipse.  April 15, 2014 was the first of the tetrad of lunar eclipses that will be seen from North America.  The tetrad (4 lunar eclipses in a row) will continue every six months for the next two years with an eclipse occurring on April 15, 2014, October 8, 2014, April 4, 2015 and September 28, 2015.

  

But what makes the moon appear red?  A lunar eclipse is when the Moon, Earth and Sun are aligned in that order.  The reason that the moon appears red/orange is that as the earth passes between the moon and the sun, the Sun's light passes around the Earth's shadow giving off an orange glow that projects off the moon's surface.  Depending on the amount of volcanic ash in the atmosphere, it may appear more orange or more red in color.

 

A lunar eclipse occurs about 2 to 3 times each year.  The next ­full lunar eclipse that will be seen in the United States will be in 2019.  So, if you missed the blood moon early Tuesday morning, you can catch a partial in another six months, but you may have to wait a few years for the next full eclipse.

 

 

USCG Navigation General Questions

 

 

 

When entering from seaward, a buoy displaying a single-flashing red light would indicate ____________.

A: a junction with the preferred channel to the left
B: a sharp turn in the channel to the right
C: the starboard side of the channel
D: a wreck to be left on the vessel's port side

 

 

When a buoy marks a channel bifurcation, the preferred channel is NOT indicated by ______________.

A: the shape of an unlighted buoy
B: the light color of a lighted buoy
C: the color of the topmost band
D: whether the number is odd or even

 

 

Yellow lights may appear on ______________.

A: special purpose buoys
B: vertically-striped buoys
C: horizontally-banded buoys
D: spherical buoys

 

A white buoy with an orange rectangle on it is used to indicate _____.

A: danger
B: a controlled area
C: an exclusion area
D: general information

 

Buoys which mark isolated dangers are painted with alternating _________ .

A: red and black bands
B: green and black bands
C: red and white stripes
D: green and white bands

 

  

 

 

  

Often times throughout history, boats built for river and canal services have made trips across open oceans. Built with low freeboards and shallow drafts, riverboats are not designed to venture far offshore.

 

The river steamboat HERMAN PAEPCKE, seen here at anchorage, was outfitted to cross the Gulf of Mexico from Galveston, TX to Tampico, Mexico in 1913.

 

This image from the Robert Runyon Photography Collection at the UT Center for American History

 

Built in 1900 in Higginsport, OH, this river sternwheeler operated for more than ten years on the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. In 1913, she was sold to a Mexican oil company and transferred to the port of Tampico, Mexico.  

 

The HERMAN PAEPCKE was 154 feet long, with a 30 foot beam and a 4 foot draft. In 1913, she was one of the largest vessels of that type seen on Galveston waters.

 

To prepare for sea, several modifications were made that can be seen in this 1913 photograph:

 

First, the entire lower deck has been boarded in with timber. On the rivers, these boats typically ran with no more than a few feet of freeboard, often mere inches.  She would likely never survive a Gulf crossing in anything more severe than a gentle swell. The HERMAN PAEPCKE's main deck has been boarded in, to a height of around five feet amidships and six or seven at bow.

 

Second, the boat's stacks have been partially dismantled, with the upper sectioned lashed down on the upper deck. Late-era boats like HERMAN PAEPCKE were built with hinged stacks that could be lowered to clear bridges along the river, but in this case the upper sections have been taken down altogether, presumable to reduce the boat's profile in the wind and to add stability as the boat rolled in open water.

 

Third, as can be seen on the bow of the vessel, conventional ground tackle (anchors, cables, etc.) have been added. Boats operating on the river systems very seldom carried ground tackle. For boats crossing the Gulf of Mexico, carrying a full set of anchors, cable and gear was essential.

From the Galveston Daily News, September 11, 1913.

 

Excerpts in this article are from "Texas Maritime History, June 2009"

 

 

© 2014 HIGMAN MARINE SERVICES, Inc.