In the early morning hours of 31 January 1988, the MCN OIL BARGE NO. 5, loaded with 9582 barrels of Heavy Cycle Gas Oil, sank in Puget Sound Washington while under tow of the tug JAMES T. QUIGG. The barge had been loaded by a tankerman who was not a member of the crew of the tug. According to the Certificate of Inspection (COI), the barge was authorized to carry 11,549 barrels of grade "D" and lower products.
The actual product carried, although grade E, was heavier than water having a specific gravity of 1.09 at 60 degrees F.
Both rakes of the barge were permitted to be loaded by the certificate of inspection as this was an inland barge. Both were loaded to about half capacity. There were no centerline bulkheads in either rake. All other tanks were fully loaded. The barge had very little freeboard when it departed the Texaco dock at Anacortes.
The master of the tug was subsequently charged by the Coast Guard with negligently towing a barge "loaded in an unsafe condition".
Before the master was brought to trial, through the efforts of his counsel and with the assistance of a MEC Associate, the Coast Guard withdrew the charges when the Commandant ruled "A tug operator's responsibilities normally do not included verifying the adequacy of the stability or loading of a barge beyond the conditions stated on the COI or the stability letter."
Continuing on, the Commandant said, "the tug operator's responsibilities normally do not include verifying the proper loading of the barge. However, the OCMI can add simple restrictions to the COI, such as the permissible number of slack tanks or minimum freeboard, which an operator can check."
The remaining question is whether or not the operator can be held responsible for loading and "slack tanks" when neither he nor one of his crew members loaded the barge as in this case. Parks, in The Law of Tug, Tow and Pilotage, 2nd Ed, states on page 226 that "it is the duty of the towed vessel to see that she is loaded properly and that her cargo is properly stowed, and the tug may assume the tow to be seaworthy."
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