Maritime Injury Law Blog

At 5:00 am on November 23, 2014, crew on the fishing vessel TWO MEGS called the New England Coast Guard in distress: the engine room was flooding.

The boat was located 40 miles east of Isles of Shoals off the coast of Maine. By 6:40 am, a Coast Guard helicopter hovered over the boat and dropped down auxiliary pumps to dewater the engine room. A fisherman aboard RACHEL T acted as a Good Samaritan and assisted.

The Coast Guard cutter GRAND ISLE arrived and towed TWO MEGS to Boston.

Crew from the fishing vessel ROYAL FORTUNE called the Northern New England Coast Guard on Saturday afternoon, November 22, 2014, to report their boat was disabled and adrift in 12′ to 15′ seas off of Southwest Harbor, Maine. According to Operations Specialist First Class Chris Kiener, the Coast Guard decided to launch a 47-foot motor lifeboat to tow the ROYAL FORTUNE and three crewmembers to shore because of the wind and high seas.

The tide was high on the East River as it flowed underneath New York City’s Brooklyn Bridge the evening of November 7, 2014. At about 10:30 pm, the 590 foot cargo ship RAINBOW QUEST headed down the East River on its way towards open sea. As the ship passed under the Brooklyn Bridge, its tallest mast clipped the bottom of the famous bridge linking Manhattan and Brooklyn.

Coast Guard spokeswoman Ali Flockerzi said the Metropolitan Transportation Authority had already scheduled a routine closure of the bridge late Friday and inspected the span when it was closed. She said there was no damage to the bridge. Can you imagine the nightmare if the RAINBOW QUEST had caused extensive damage to the bridge and/or the ship? Any boat must know its height requirements and high tide information for passing under bridges. Luckily no one was injured and no damage was done.

On Friday, November 7, 2014, the National Weather Service Ocean Prediction Center recorded the central pressure of post-tropical Nuri at 924 mb over the Bering Sea. On November 9, however, Hurricane Central reported that the storm’s lowest pressure was 929.8. For reference, Hurricane Andrew’s pressure was 922, and Hurricane Sandy’s was 940. Whether the pressure was 924 or 929, the post-tropical Nuri/Bering Sea storm is one of the largest Northern Pacific storms on record.

From north to south, the massive storm covered 2000 miles from 68 N latitude to 40 N latitude. Hurricane force winds with gusts of 96 mph and 30-50′ waves were recorded. The Coast Guard in Kodiak reported that no damage or distress calls had been received as of 8 a.m. Saturday. That good news is probably because the storm was much publicized and because most of the storm hit open sea. Most fishing boats headed into Dutch Harbor and cargo ships gave the area a wide berth to avoid the storm. Small villages such as Adak and Attu on the southwestern end of the Aleutian chain are not strangers to strong storms and effectively battened down the hatches against the storm.

Did any “Deadliest Catch” boats brave the storm? We shall see.