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MARINE | Inland Marine Law In association with Galloway
What could possibly go wrong? Frederick William “Billy” Swaim, (left) Director, and Brendan Hughes, (below) Attorney, of New Orleans based specialist marine law firm Galloway discuss the important insurance implications of complex series of allisions as three vessels attempted to pass each other on the Mississippi Upriver of New Orleans at a community known as Norco are situated a cluster of petrochemical plants with associated marine terminals and moorings. This stretch of the Mississippi River sees a high-volume of inland traffic and features a near-90˚westward (upriver) bend known as the Hahnville Bar. On the evening of January 31, 2016, three vessels were approaching this bend at the same time: the towboats Elizabeth and Loretta on downriver courses and the bulk carrier M/V Aris T on an upriver course. Although conditions were fair, a light surface fog was developing, and the river was running high with strong currents of four-to-five knots. As the Elizabeth was preparing to stop and back into a barge fleet mooring facility, the Loretta sought to overtake the Elizabeth starboard-toport and the two captains confirmed their overtaking agreement. Thus, the Loretta maneuvered into the middle of the channel. In making their overtaking agreement, the captains of the Elizabeth and the Loretta failed to acknowledge a preceding The Marine Insurer | March 2022
The Aris T anchored post accident on the Mississippi River at Grand View Reach Anchorage, mm 147.0, near Gramercy, Louisiana. (Photo by US Coast Guard)
radio announcement by the pilot of the Aris T announcing her position. As such, they assumed no traffic was approaching them from downriver. It was not until the Loretta was already overtaking the Elizabeth that the captain of the Elizabeth contacted the pilot of the Aris T, whereby they organized a port-to-port passing. This meant that the three vessels agreed to pass each other with the Elizabeth on the west moving downriver, the Aris T on the east moving upriver, and the Loretta in between them moving downriver, overtaking the Elizabeth. What could possibly go wrong? As the Loretta attempted to pass, again, while moving downriver, instead of moving closer to the riverbank the Elizabeth remained in the middle of the river and continuously slid east during the passing, pushed by the strong current. Therefore, there was insufficient space for the three vessels to be alongside one another simultaneously. To avoid a collision with the Loretta, the pilot of the Aris T instead enacted an evasive maneuver that resulted in a series of allisions with vessels and dockage infrastructure at both the Valero and Shell/Motiva Norco facilities.
