Whale-Watching Tour Boat Hits Ledge

Last Saturday morning the whale-watching tour boat Massachusetts being steered by a captain who was watching goodness knows what, steamed outside of a well-marked 200-yard wide channel and ran aground on a rock ledge called Devil’s Back. It is marked. The vessel was reportedly going 18 knots at the time. A tow captain said the vessel had two 5’ long rips in the bottom and damaged running gear and began taking on water. A headline in the Monday issue of the Boston Globe said, “Pilot Error May Have Had Role in Crash.” Ya think? The vessel had two captains aboard at the time of the accident.

174 passengers and crew were safely evacuated in Boston Harbor, as Mayday call quickly brought help.

174 rescued as Harbor Vessel Founders

By O’Ryan Johnson, Jessica Fargen and Christine McConville
Sunday, July 4, Boston Herald--

Marine investigators are taking a hard look at what caused a whale watch boat with a history of ocean mishaps to veer off course yesterday and crash into a well-known rocky ledge, tossing tourists onto the floor and forcing a dramatic preholiday evacuation at sea.

Just what happened to the 87-foot-long vessel Massachusetts, why it left the proper shipping channel and whether its pilot was at fault in the grounding will all be examined, said Lt. Stephen West, assistant chief of investigations for the U.S. Coast Guard in Boston.

The two-deck red, white and blue ferry-like vessel was carrying 174 people when it hit the outcropping known as Devil’s Back at about 10 a.m. Devil’s Back is a dangerous and shallow ledge that is well-marked on nautical charts and is visible at low tide.

Several passengers told the Herald the boat - going about 18 knots - veered out of the shipping channel when a barge being assisted by a tugboat approached.

The Coast Guard refused to release details yesterday on its investigation. The probe will include the pilot’s qualifications and questions about why he steered onto a collision course with the rock, West said.

West said a marine inspector will remain with the stranded vessel, which was being hauled from the accident scene to a shipyard in Chelsea last night.

The captain and crew were tested for drugs and alcohol, which is standard procedure, West said.

The Coast Guard and the company that owns the boat, Massachusetts Bay Lines, based at Rowes Wharf in Boston, refused to identify the pilot or crew.

The scene onboard the vessel was chaotic, then calm, passengers said.

“People jumped into action,” said Julie Dahlke, 47, of Mahomet, Ill. “Someone turned off the hot dog machine. It was a steamer. But someone turned it off. Why add fire to the list of problems? The boat crew handled everyone very nicely. While we were waiting you could feel it tilting and groaning.”

The Massachusetts, which has served both as a ferry and excursion vessel, has a checkered history.

Three years ago, it was ferrying 151 passengers and crew when it crashed into another ferry in thick fog during the morning commute in Boston Harbor. In 2006, an engine on the Massachusetts caught fire while the boat was off Quincy and 70 passengers and crew were evacuated. The damage was estimated at $800,000. In both cases, no one was seriously injured.

Massachusetts Bay Lines of Boston has a fleet of vessels for harbor cruises and private party cruises.

The company is a subcontractor to Boston Harbor Cruises, the MBTA’s Hingham commuter service provider.

174 passengers and crew were safely evacuated in Boston Harbor, as Mayday call quickly brought help.

The Spence family of Hingham has owned Massachusetts Bay Lines since 1963. Company filings list William J. Spence as the president, his son Jay W. Spence as general manager, and a daughter, Kerry L. Spence, is chief financial officer.

The Massachusetts has two bars, a dance floor and is “ideal for large corporate dinner and cocktail parties,” according to the company’s Web site. The boat can hold up to 300 people. The owners of Massachusetts Bay Lines issued a brief statement last night praising first responders for assisting the vessel after their captain “radioed a distress ‘mayday’ call.” They refused repeated requests to comment further.

Many of the passengers on the vessel yesterday were tourists taking in the city’s Fourth of July festivities.
The force of the crash knocked many down and elicited screams, said Sarah Bennett, 24, who was visiting Boston from North Carolina to observe whales.

“We heard this huge noise and the boat kind of lurched forward,” she said.

Bennett said the Massachusetts veered out of the regular shipping channel just before the crash. At the time, a tugboat was pushing a barge nearby, she said.

“I saw a barge and then I heard a loud grinding noise,” said Max Allen, 16, one of 51 teens on a church trip from Illinois. “Pink stuff started coming out of the sides of the boat and we rushed to grab life jackets.”

The Coast Guard reported one passenger suffered a back injury. Fishing boats, fire boats and Coast Guard boats ferried passengers to safety in Hull.

“It’s a huge pat on the back for every agency involved,” said Hull Deputy Fire Chief Christopher J. Russo, whose department responded.

Responders set up a triage center at Hull’s Pemberton Pier and evaluated passengers as they were brought in, he said.

Winthrop Harbor Master Chuck Famolare, who was on scene, said crews from Sea Tow Boston and Tow Boat US used plastic bags and cushion stuffing to fill the hole and pump water out.

“They did an outstanding job of saving her from going down,” he said.

By O’Ryan Johnson Monday, July 5, 2010 - Updated 11h ago

As the U.S. Coast Guard continued its probe into the grounding of a whale watch boat Saturday in Boston Harbor, a salvage worker who surveyed the Massachusetts said the vessel suffered severe damage in the collision.

Michael Goodridge, owner of TowBoat U.S. Boston, said the crash shattered the transmission of one of the boat’s four engines, shoved a metal rod up into the boat, mangled the propellers and damaged the rudder.

“It was pretty bad. We arrived on scene as the passengers were being moved off,” he said. “The boat was definitely flooding . . . It sustained damage near the keel. It was tears and impact damage.”

The underwater rock outcropping known as the Devil’s Back shredded two, 5-foot gashes in the aluminum hull of the ship as the collision occurred at about 18 knots.

The boat was stranded on the rocks with 174 passengers on board, six of them injured and with water pouring in.

The Coast Guard said the cause of the crash is under investigation. The name of the boat’s captain as well as the results of drug and alcohol testing were not released.

Goodridge said many boats have crashed on Devil’s Back, which is why it’s marked by a buoy. He said all it takes is a moment of inattention to get into trouble.

“We’ve done numerous salvage jobs out there,” he said. “He’s not the first and he won’t be the last. Some people think these channel markers are for the big boats. No one thinks it’s going to be 1 foot deep out there.”

Citing the ongoing investigation, Coast Guard officials would not comment on whether the boat was attempting to enter the channel alongside or behind a barge when it ran aground. Some passengers speculated that maneuvering with that vessel led to the crash.

Goodridge, who frequently pilots the waterway, doubted if that prompted the collision. He said the 200-yard wide channel gives boaters ample room to move around.

“There’s no excuse for it,” he said. “How do you justify it? It’s just a mistake. The trouble is it becomes too routine.”

A Coast Guard official said all the navigational aids in that part of the harbor were working when the ship ran aground about a mile and a half off Deer Island in Boston Harbor. Meanwhile, the damaged ship was docked at Fitzgerald Shipyard in Chelsea where workers plan to drain oil from the boat’s hull, then remove it from the water to make the repairs.