NATHAN E STEWART

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Kirby Offshore Marine Corp. fined for oil spill

The Texas-based company Kirby Offshore Marine Corp. has been fined over 2.9 million US Dollars in penalties after pleading guilty to a diesel spill from "Nathan E.Stewart" that ran aground and sank in a First Nation's fishing territory on B.C.'s Central Coast. The decision against the company was handed down on July 16, 2019, in Bella Bella, British Columbia. The "Nathan E.Stewart" spilled 110,000 litres of diesel and heavy oils in Oct 2016. The Transportation Safety Board found that a crew member missed a planned course change because he fell asleep while alone on watch.

Report: Fatigue caused grounding of tug

The Transportation Safety Board found out that the second mate on the "Nathan E. Stewart" that ran aground off Vancouver Island missed a planned change of course because he fell asleep while he was alone on watch. About 107,000 litres of diesel and more than 2,200 litres of lubricants, including gear and hydraulic oils, leaked into the Pacific Ocean after the "Nathan E. Stewart" ran aground in October 2016. He had been working a schedule that didn't allow for sufficient rest while off duty, the board said Thursday. The safety board recommendied that watchkeepers be trained to help identify and prevent the risks of fatigue, and that all vessel owners have fatigue-management plans tailored to individual operators. Fatigue has been identified as a “casual or contributory factor” in a number of marine accidents. The report also said spill response and recovery efforts were within prescribed time standards, but there was some confusion about who had authority over the operation. The board said keeping watch alone on the bridge of the "Nathan E. Stewart" was contrary to Canadian regulations. It said the second mate had been alternating between six hours on duty and six hours of rest for more than two days. The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board released a report in November saying the tug's second mate told investigators he missed a change of course after falling asleep, which the board said was the probable cause of the vessel running aground. The U.S. report said Houston-based Kirby Offshore Marine had ineffectively implemented safety management procedures, which contributed to the accident involving its tug and that there was a lack of documentation on safety rounds and no evidence that safety management rules were implemented on board the "Nathan E. Stewart". Full report: http://www.bst-tsb.gc.ca/eng/rapports-reports/marine/2016/m16p0378/m16p0378.asp

Report: Sleeping mate caused grounding of ATB

The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) issued a marine accident brief showing that a man fell asleep at the wheel of the "Nathan E. Stewart" while she was towing a barge through the Seaforth Channel on B.C.’s central coast when it ran aground off Athlone Island and released 29,000 gallons of fuel and lube oil. Damage to the tug and the barge was estimated at US$12 million. The "Nathan E. Stewart" and the barge, the DBL 55, had departed from the Port of Vancouver on Oct. 4., 2016, and arrived in Ketchikan, Alaska on Oct. 11. The articulated tug and barge (ATB) which were operated by Kirby Offshore Marine, discharged a cargo of jet fuel and gasoline and loaded 23,128 gallons of fuel oil into its tanks before it set course once again for the Port of Vancouver. Once underway, the crew of the "Nathan E Stewart/DBL 55" rotated watch duties at intervals of four hours on, eight hours off. On the night of Oct. 12, the ATB’s second mate relieved the ship’s captain of his watch in the wheelhouse at 11 p.m., an hour earlier than his scheduled time. With the ATB travelling at speeds of anywhere between 8.4 and 9,3 knots, he took the vessel through Queen Charlotte Sound, making a preapproved course change at Salal Island. The site where the "Nathan E Stewart/DBL 55" ran aground near Bella Bella on Oct. 13, 2016. The ATB had a electronic chart system (ECS), a navigational tool with a cross-track error alarm function that would sound an alarm if the vessel’s position veered to the right or the left of its path for the route it was taking. But that tool being wasn’t used at the time of the accident. With the second mate standing watch, the "Nathan E. Stewart" missed a course change near Ivory Island at about 12:53 a.m. on Oct. 13. A tankerman tried to reach the second mate via radio at around 1 a.m. There was no response after a minute. He tried him again. That too yielded no response. The tankerman then headed toward the wheelhouse — and felt a shuddering in the vessel along the way. Finally, on his third try, he reached the second mate, who informed him that the "Nathan E Stewart" had run aground at Edge Reef, a rocky area close to Athlone Island in the Seaforth Channel. The second mate would later admit he had fallen asleep — and confirm this detail with investigators. At 2:40 a.m., crew members set up a hose to transfer diesel fuel from the "Nathan E Stewart"’s tanks to a cargo tank on the DBL 55. At 4:10 a.m., crew members and first responders on the scene noticed that there was diesel fuel in the water around the tug. Then they started transferring fuel to the barge Crews tried to surround the spill with an oil containment boom, but winds and waves forced it open in parts. Meanwhile, the vessel was taking on water — and despite crew members’ attempts to pump it out, the stern of the "Nathan E. Stewart" partially submerged at around 9:27 a.m. The tug separated from the barge at around 6:40 p.m. and was left partially sunk in about 28 feet of water. When the Nathan E Stewart was recovered on Nov. 14, the tug’s bottom had extensive deformation that showed multiple penetrations in the hull plating. Investigators determined a number of causes for the incident. The main one was that the second mate had fallen asleep. He felt that he had had enough rest at the time, but it was determined that he missed an hour of sleep when he started early. Another cause was that the vessel’s crew was not following its safety management system (SMS), which required a second watchperson in the wheelhouse with the second mate at the time. There esd no evidence indicating that a second watchstander was ever present on the bridge with the second mate. Finally, there was the ECS’ cross-track alarm function. Had it been operating at the time, the ECS would have set off an alarm when the second mate missed the course change. It would have given the second mate time to make the change if it were being used, the report said.