Report: Decision to sail in bad weather led to mishap off Scituate – Wicked Local Scituate

Federal investigators say a decision to forge ahead through bad weather led to a mishap off the coast of Scituate that resulted in the sinking of a $2 million construction barge and push boat in late 2018.In a report released last month, the National Transportation Safety Board faulted tug-boat owner Edward Safer Jr. and Capt. Philip Murray Porteus for their decision to travel despite a forecast of high seas above the limit for their flotilla. The report also detailed a string of mishaps that left a barge loaded with fuel, oil and an excavator on the 100-foot-deep ocean floor off Revere.Investigators using a remotely-operated submersible determined that the large excavator and the main deck of the barge were "embedded into the sea floor" at the bottom of Broad Sound just south of Nahant. The sunken barge was initially discovered just north of a major shipping lane into Boston Harbor by a Quincy police marine unit, which was assisting the U.S. Coast Guard.On board the sunken barge were 500 gallons of diesel fuel and 400 gallons of hydraulic oil, but no leaking oil was spotted. The barge and excavator were valued at $1.8 million.A push boat, the R.E. Pierson, was also assumed to have sunk, but it has never been found, according to the report.The crash and sinking came as the the tugboat was bringing a flotilla of five barges and two workboats from Riverside, Connecticut, to Hingham Bay for a dredging project at the Hingham Shipyard Marinas. Safer was contracted to move the flotilla, through his company, Safer Tug and Barge LLC.According to the report, the plan Porteus and Safer wrote had them only traveling when waves would be lower than four feet. Everything was fine until the flotilla reached the Cape Cod Canal, which required the flotilla to wait until the tide was moving in its direction because of its size.Safer told investigators that waiting on passage through the Cape Cod Canal on the night of Dec. 1, 2018, "caused a major problem," according to a transcript of the interview.The forecast for Dec. 2 predicted waves of four to six feet, above the limit the two men had planned, according to the report. When talking to investigators about the accident, and his decision to sail in high seas, Safer said that in the past he had used the R.E. Pierson to push a barge in six- to seven-foot seas."We encountered something different," he said. "And it came so fast and so furious that it caught us off-guard. It really did."At 6 a.m., rough seas woke Safer and a deckhand and by 6:30 a.m., waves were four to six feet. Around 7:30 a.m., Safer boarded the tugboat Pierson to tighten winches when a crank handle released, breaking his nose and cutting him, making it hard to see, according to the report.An hour later, one of the barge cables snapped and the captain ordered the crew to release the second cable. While trying to retrieve the barge, the steering system failed, around 8:30 a.m., according to the report.One of the crew members went to help figure out what happened to the steering when he fell down the stairs, injuring himself.The engineer and Safer found one of the steering system hoses ruptured and was spraying a fine mist of fluid onto the ship's batteries, at least one of which exploded. The ship was left with few working electronics because of the destroyed batteries, according to the report.The crew then realized the radio antenna was damaged, requiring the captain to call for help on a hand-held radio. The barge with the excavator started to rock back and forth against the tug boat, which likely pierced the side of the barge, which started to take on water.The captain maneuvered the tug boat so the crew could attach lines to two of the other barges, which increased the rolling and pitching on the tug, which then caused the navigational computer to slide across the wheelhouse, disabling the GPS system, according to the report.After trying to keep the flotilla together, the crew deemed it unsafe and allowed all but one barge to drift away."One of the captains told me we were so (expletive) close they said we were like four miles from home, when this happened," Safer said, according to the transcript.At 9:30, the captain called for help from the U.S. Coast Guard, which responded along with three privately-owned tug boats, which retrieved one tug boat and two of the barges.Cashman Dredging and Marine Contracting Co. LLC, owner of the tug boats that retrieved the wayward ships, is suing to recover a reward for salvaging them, according to federal court documents. That case is pending in Federal District Court.Porteus and Safer could not be reached for comment.

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Report: Decision to sail in bad weather led to mishap off Scituate - Wicked Local Scituate