Houston-tug JR Nichols still sunk, body recovered

Captains,

This week's tragic sinking of the tug JR Nichols in the Houston Ship Channel, like the recent collision involving the tug Dixie Vengeance and T/V Eagle Otome the Sabine-Neches waterway near Port Arthur and the 2008 tug Mel Oliver-M/V Tintomora collision in New Orleans must be carefully investigated to determine if improvements can be made. These are critical, congested waterways shared by blue water and brown water operations.

Unfortunately, when the JR Nichols sank, it partially blocked the channel, but more tragically, a crewmember was lost.

RDML W

Body found after tugboat accident

Officials hope to raise vessel this weekend

By MIKE GLENN HOUSTON CHRONICLE

Feb. 12, 2010, 12:36AM

Michael Paulsen Chronicle

Officer Troy Stearns and other Houston Police Marine Unit divers unload equipment Thursday after locating the body of a crew member of the sunken tugboat J.R. Nichols in the Houston Ship Channel. Four other members of the crew survived.

HOUSTON (Coast Guard)– A salvage crew working to raise the tug boat that sank in the Houston Ship Channel recovered what is believed to be the vessel’s missing crewmember Thursday.

The victim, a man, was found deceased by divers from TNT Marine, a salvage company hired to dive on the vessel early this afternoon.

The command center at Coast Guard Sector Houston-Galveston received a call at 10:30 p.m., Wednesday, stating that the 56-foot tug boat had sank in the shipping channel near the Sims Bayou turning basin with five people on board. Four of the five were recovered from the water by good Samaritan vessels and then transported to a local hospital by EMS. The four men displayed symptoms of hypothermia. One crew member, however, had remained missing.

By Erwin Seba

HOUSTON, Feb 11 (Reuters) - Two Houston refineries said their operations were unaffected on Thursday morning by the closure of a portion of the upper Houston Ship Channel due to a sunken tug boat and the search for a missing crewman.

Lyondell Basell's 270,600 barrel-per-day Houston refinery is near where the tug sank in the Houston Ship Channel on Wednesday night. Valero Energy Corp's 145,000-bpd Houston refinery is west of the Lyondell plant.

The shutdown could extend into Saturday while the search for the missing crewman is conducted and the tugboat is removed, said Coast Guard Captain James Whitehead, deputy commander of Sector Houston-Galveston.

"The tugboat is partially blocking the channel," Whitehead said at a news conference.

Two ships were prevented from coming into the upper channel and one ship was unable to exit on Thursday afternoon.