FWB official's daughter injured in fatal sailing accident

FORT WALTON BEACH - A woman is on her way home after fighting for her life following a boating accident that killed one person and injured three others, including herself. Tracy Garvie, co-owner of GLC Construction and daughter of Fort Walton Beach City Councilman Bill Garvie, was on a sailboat about 100 miles southeast of Atlantic City, N.J., when what may have been a rogue wave overturned the 44-foot boat. The three sailors had to bail water from the sinking vessel for 12 hours before they were rescued. One of the sailors, 65-year-old Phil Rubright of Detroit, drowned after a failed rescue attempt that also injured a Coast Guard swimmer.

Injured Seaman's Basic Rights - Video by Clark & Watson - Jacksonville Maritime Lawyers

Mel Oliver Tug pilot testifies in Miss. River crash hearing

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — An improperly licensed and overworked towboat pilot said Tuesday that radar and steering lever problems led him to veer his tug into the path of a tanker along the Mississippi River, leading to a crash and oil spill that shut the major waterway for days. During a Coast Guard fact-gathering hearing into the July 23 collision, John Paul Bavaret II said his towboat, the Mel Oliver, got in the way of a southbound Liberian tanker ship because he became distracted by a malfunctioning radar.

Airboat captain cited in sinking - Udate on Story

Wildlife officials have cited an airboat captain with failing to quickly report a boating accident in South Florida.Officials say Charles W. Riley was driving an overloaded tourboat that took on water and sank in an Everglades marsh populated with alligators. Investigators said the boat's capacity was 23 people but that 37 were onboard. Other airboat captains in the area rescued the tourists, among them young children, and some suffered minor injuries. See this too.

Attorneys probe lack of oversight of towboat industry

A Coast Guard investigation of a July oil spill took a philosophical turn Thursday when an attorney for the ship involved in the accident criticized lax government oversight of the towboat industry.Michael Butterworth, who represents the ship Tintomara, told Coast Guard investigating officer Melissa Harper that the agency needs a regular inspection program for towboats. The comment came after Harper stopped several witnesses from answering Butterworth's questions about the lack of supervision of the towboat industry.

Maritime Law - What is it? One lawyer answers...

From the Wall Street Journal Blog-

Earlier today, in a post on the Exxon Valdez litigation, we copped to not knowing much at all about maritime law. Well, over the course of the afternoon, the admission started to gnaw within us, so we decided to rectify the situation. We checked in with Warren Marwedel, the first vice president of the Maritime Law Association and a name partner at Chicago’s Marwedel, Minichello & Reeb, a nine-lawyer outfit which specializes in admiralty and maritime law. He, well, righted our ship pretty quickly.

Five years later, Staten Island ferry crash victim standing tall

Out of the city's deadliest transportation accident in decades emerged the story of a young Staten Island man whose spirit defied belief. Paul Esposito was a 24-year-old waiter with his whole life ahead of him when he lost both of his legs - and nearly his life - in the 2003 Staten Island ferry crash.

Pilot: Towboat erratic before Miss. River spill

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A towboat was so erratic it appeared its operator "had had a stroke" as it pushed a barge into the path of a tanker before a collision that shut a major shipping waterway over the summer, the tanker's pilot testified Thursday.The tanker ran over the barge in July, causing the barge's fuel tank to rupture and spill about 276,000 gallons of oil into the Mississippi River in New Orleans. The collision closed the river for six days.

Bodies of US reps' brother, his girlfriend found

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The bodies of the brother of two Southern California congresswomen and his girlfriend have been recovered from the waters off Los Angeles, days after the couple disappeared during a boat trip, authorities said Thursday. The bodies of Henry Sanchez, 51, and Penny Avila, 48, were pulled from the wreckage of Sanchez's 26-foot motor boat on Wednesday, Coast Guard and Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies said.

US loses Jones Act case

A federal court in Virginia has handed the Shipbuilders Council of America its second victory this year in cases it brought against the Coast Guard for allowing major work on Jones Act ships to be done at foreign shipyards. Matthew Paxton, SCA president, said Tuesday that District Judge T.S. Ellis of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia had issued an order Sept. 30 in favor of the organization, which had sued over the conversion of a Matson container ship to a combination container-car carrier vessel at a yard in China.

Fishing boat accident spurs indictment

A crew member aboard a commercial fishing boat that sank off the Manasquan Inlet was indicted yesterday on charges he illegally discharged diesel fuel into the Atlantic Ocean. The indictment charged Keith Rose, 46, of Wellfleet, Mass., with one count of violating the state's Water Pollution Control Act in the July 2 crash that resulted in the sinking of the Susan II, state Attor ney General Anne Milgram said.

Tugboat Life

This is a really fantastic site for professional mariners and industry people. It is run by professional mariners too.

Dwayne

St. Johns River Boat Accident Kills 1 in April - Jacksonville Florida Boating Accident Lawyers @ lawboat.com

Video on boating accident on St. Johns River near Jacksonville.

Shipping ex-execs plead guilty in Jones Act antitrust case

Four former U.S. shipping company executives have agreed to plead guilty and serve jail sentences for their roles in what the U.S. Department of Justice describes as "a wide-ranging conspiracy to rig bids, fix prices and allocate market shares for customers transporting goods between the continental United States and Puerto Rico by ocean vesse." The Department also announced that a fifth shipping executive has agreed to plead guilty to destroying evidence of the shipping conspiracy.