SPIRIT OF NORFOLK

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Damaged ship prepared to become artificial reef

The 'Spirit of Norfolk' is being prepared at the Colonna's Shipyard for serving as an artificial reef, along with the 'Skippin Sue', a vessel owned by Coleen Marine Inc. Both were sold for $740,000 to be used as artificial marine reefs off the shore of the Destin-Fort Walton Beach area. The request from the tourism development department in Okaloosa County was approved. The vessel has nearly 40 ft of relief and a 16 ft mast which will provide some of the highest relief in the area. Both vessels will also provide scuba diving and fishing opportunities as well as provide essential habitat for numerous species of fish and a great location for divers and fishermen to visit enabling Destin-Fort Walton Beach to continue to improve its status as a premier fishing and diving destination in Florida. The fire which gutted the 'Spirit of Norfolk', once a popular passenger ship in Virginia's Hampton Roads region, on the Elizabeth River on June 7, 2022, was too large to be tackled by the crew, according to the report of the National Transportation Safety Board,. All 108 passengers and crew had to be evacuated from the vessel. The fire wasn't fully extinguished until days later on June 11. The NTSB reported a $5 million loss from the fire. The investigation determined the fire was likely caused by the ignition of combustible materials stored near the exhaust pipe of the operating port generator. Since the boat was operating before 1996, it was not required to have engine-room fire detection and fixed fire-extinguishing systems.

Damaged dinner cruise ship to be scuttled

Okaloosa County commissioners approved a $740,000 contract to transform the fire damaged 'Spirit of Norfolk' into an artificial reef along with the tug 'Skippin Sue' (MMSI: 367062040) in order to enhance local marine habitats and tourism. The Okaloosa Board of County Commissioners approved a contract on July 16, 2024, for the acquisition, preparation, and deployment of the two vessels as artificial reefs off the coast of Destin-Fort Walton Beach. The $740,000 contract with the Coleen Marine Inc. will fund the transformation of the passenger ship and the tug into underwater habitats for marine life. An additional $42,000 was approved as a weather contingency, bringing the total potential project cost to $782,000. The former dinner cruise vessel was damaged by fire beyond repair. The ship will provide nearly 40 feet of relief with a 16-foot mast, making it one of the highest-profile artificial reefs in the area. Following negotiations, a formal inspection was conducted in May, and during that inspection a second vessel,the 'Skippin Sue', was also identified as a potential reef. Due to mobilization and towing costs already being covered in the cost of the 'Spirit of Norfolk' project, the cost of the second vessel was lower than similar vessel projects, and it was determined that piggybacking this vessel on the existing project was in the best interest of the artificial reef program. The tug is slated for deployment in state waters less than nine miles offshore. Its lower profile makes it suitable for shallower depths in the nearshore artificial reef system, making it ideal for scuba diving and fishing opportunities. The new reefs will provide essential habitat for numerous fish species, further enhancing Destin-Fort Walton Beach’s reputation as a premier fishing and diving destination in Florida.

NTSB: Modern safety systems could have halted fire

The National Transportation Safety Board has completed its investigation into the fire aboard the 'Spirit of Norfolk' on Oct 7, 2022, and concluded that flammable material stowed near an exhaust pipe likely started the blaze. The outcome was driven by other factors, including the lack of a fixed firefighting system and ventilation dampers, which were not required by regulation for the small vessel. The 'Spirit of Norfolk' had departed her pier with a newly-hired captain at the helm and 91 passengers and 17 crew members aboard for a two-hour cruise in the morning of Oct 7. At noon, as the captain began to make a turn to begin the return leg of the trip, the port throttle lost its connection to the port engine and stopped responding. He asked a crew member to check the engine room, but soon noticed smoke coming from the port side engine room ventilation opening. He called the Coast Guard at 12.04 p.m. The crew could not enter the engine room because of thick smoke, so they closed the watertight door, shut off fuel supply valves, and shut down the engine room ventilation fan. The engine room vents were not fitted with fire dampers, so there was no way to shut off natural airflow, and air continued to enter the compartment throughout the response. Multiple good samaritan vessels responded to the emergency, including 13 tugs and the passenger m/v 'Victory Rover'. The tug 'Condor' held the 'Victory Rover' in place against the 'Spirit of Norfolk's port side, and all passengers safely transferred over to the smaller passenger vessel. The captain was last off the ferry after making a final sweep. The still-burning 'Spirit of Norfolk' was towed to a nearby berth at Naval Station Norfolk for pierside firefighting efforts, and it arrived after 1300. Shoreside firefighting teams and tugs sprayed water into the engine room through the ventilation openings in hopes of combating the fire. At about 2.30 p.m., a four-man attack team made up of City of Norfolk and U.S. Navy firefighters went aboard the vessel to spray foam into the engine room. They failed to find the escape scuttle, which they had been instructed to use for access. In an apparent communication breakdown, the attack team opened the main watertight hatch to the engine compartment instead. The hatch door burst open from the force of the accumulated firefighting water behind it, trapping one man behind the hatch and causing the vessel to list to port as the weight of thousands of gallons of water shifted. A tug held the listing ship against the pier to keep it from capsizing while the firefighting team was evacuated. They got off the vessel, but could not close the engine room hatch behind them before they left, and this allowed the fire to spread to the rest of the vessel. At around 8 p.m. the US Coast Guard established a broader unified command and recommended that no more firefighting water be added to the vessel's interior. Boundary cooling and dewatering continued, but the fire continued to burn until the morning of June 11, four days after it started. The vessel was written off as a total loss at a cost of $5 million. Based on an analysis of pre-accident survey information and burn patterns in the engine room, NTSB concluded that the fire likely started in a collection of combustible materials which had been stored next to the port side generator exhaust pipe. Contributing factors to the fire's spread included a lack of fire detection and fixed firefighting systems in the engine room; these were not required aboard the 'Spirit of Norfolk' because of her age and steel hull, which qualified her for a grandfather clause for Subchapter K passenger vessels. The NTSB called on the Coast Guard to remove this grandfather clause and require these older vessels to install fire detection and fire suppression systems in the engine room - or at minimum, to require fire-detection alone. NTSB noted that it first asked the USCG to require these upgrades for small passenger vessels in 2007, but the Coast Guard declined twice because the proposal did not pass a cost-benefit analysis test. Had the 'Spirit of' Norfolk been equipped with a fire extinguishing system to protect its engine room, the fire likely would have been quickly extinguished and the casualty mitigated," NTSB reasoned. The exemption presents an increased risk of harm from an engine room fire to passengers and crew members. Full report: https://www.ntsb.gov/investigations/AccidentReports/Reports/MIR2322.pdf