Shipwrecks and Rescues

by A.M. Foley

A modern hazard to navigation was exposed last March when a huge container ship grounded just shy of the Bay Bridge. The State of Maryland had outlawed drivers texting or using handheld cells on the road but had neglected to include pilots guiding container ships on the Chesapeake. After due consideration, in January the Maryland Board of Pilots barred on-duty pilots from similar distractions.

According to witnesses, the pilot directing the Ever Forward was distracted for much of the trip from Baltimore by personal phone calls that appeared to be disturbing. Coast Guard investigators found the 1,095-foot ship missed a bend in the shipping channel and ran aground at full speed as its pilot typed an email on his personal phone.

An overly diplomatic third officer, senior on the bridge while the captain was at dinner, tried to cue the pilot to take his eyes from his cellphone but failed to get his attention. With no change of course ordered, the ironically named Ever Forward grounded off Sandy Point State Park. The park gave voyeurs a good vantage point for the five-week struggle to refloat the behemoth and its mountain of 4,964 containers.

Shipwrecks and Rescues saw relaunch of Ever Forward forward, and the natives enjoying the spectacle from the shore were friendly. A senior Coast Guard officer described the task of freeing a 117,000-ton weight from bottom mud as “historic in scope.” Once upon a time, seamen in similar fixes were not assured of such a congenial reception and outcome.

Fortunately, no innocent humans were harmed by the fiasco, the Coast Guard eventually over -

When groundings and wrecks were quite common, those sailing the seven seas heard horrific tales of what might await them should they survive running aground or sinking off a rocky coast. Maurice O’Sullivan, a native of the Blasket Islands, witnessed the cargo ship Quebra , which foundered one foggy night in the rocky Atlan-