THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, February 24, 1995 TAG: 9502240565
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JACK DORSEY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Short : 43 lines
The Coast Guard Thursday charged a tug boat operator with negligence for failing to report for about 12 hours the sinking of his barge and its cargo Tuesday night near the main shipping channel in Hampton Roads.
The sinking forced a three-hour closing of the channel until the wreck was located Wednesday evening off Old Point Comfort, near the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel. The barge was carrying a disabled tugboat on its deck.
William S. Mowbray, of Mowbray Tug and Barge, was charged with four Coast Guard violations after an investigation by the Marine Safety Office in Norfolk, said Capt. Dennis Sande, captain of the port.
Mowbray is charged with negligence in failing to notify the Coast Guard of a hazardous situation; not having his merchant mariner's license aboard; failing to notify the Coast Guard of the occurrence of a marine casualty; and operating an inadequately manned vessel. If convicted, Mowbray could lose his license and be fined.
The Coast Guard said the sinking occurred about 10 p.m. Tuesday near Old Point Comfort, but Mowbray didn't report it until 10:10 a.m. Wednesday after sailing on toward Chesapeake.
Crofton Diving Co., which will attempt to salvage the barge and tug, was meeting with the barge's owner, Wright Dredging of Chesapeake, to determine how best to recover the wreck, the Coast Guard said Thursday. Initial plans called for placing straps around the barge and lifting it with a crane.
The disabled tug was on the 135-foot barge when it sank. An Army Corps of Engineers survey vessel found the barge about 7 p.m. Wednesday, using its sonar, and marked it with a lighted wreck buoy. The tug remains strapped onto the barge. Salvage crews hope to re-float the barge within the next three days. It was not immediately known what caused the sinking.
The Coast Guard closed the Thimble Shoals main and auxiliary channels and the Entrance Reach Channel from the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel to Sewell's Point about 4 p.m., but reopened it once the wreckage was located. by CNB