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← UPDATE - This is Empress of the North’s 3rd Grounding NATO Considers Active Protection of Offshore Assets →

UPDATE - Empress of the North’s Long History of Trouble

May 14th, 2007 · Comments

Maritime Executive Magazine



This is actually the 4th grounding of the vessel “Empress of the Sea”. By reviewing the USCG incident reports along with some google powered research we were able to Empress of the North’s Lifeboatsfind at least three groundings in addition to today’s incident.

March 24th, 2006: Multnomah County sheriff’s Lt. Mike Schults’s eyewitness reoprt stated “Wind and choppy water may have sent the vessel off course.” The result was a firm grounding on a sand bar at the edge of the Columbia River near Portland, OR. Reported by the AP

Nov 27th 2003: During the evening on a voyage up the Columbia River the vessel developed steering problems and ran aground 80 miles NW of Portland. Two crew and a passenger suffered minor injuries.

Oct. 24, 2003, while transiting a lock on the Snake River the vessel grounded with no reported injuries.

2007 has been a particularly bad year for the ship after 23 passengers took ill and the ship subsequently failed its CDC health inspection. That incident is still under investigation.

Empress of the North

The 2003 grounding’s story is really in the recovery operations:

The Empress of the North lost a lot of weight on March 25, but the stubborn sternwheeler refused to budge from her perch on a Columbia River sandbar. Rescuers had a simple plan to save the 360-foot ship, which grounded near Washougal, Wash., on the morning of March 24. They would drain most of the ship’s diesel fuel, then hope the reduced weight and a rising afternoon tide would lift the Empress enough to maneuver downstream. It took crews hours longer than they thought to drain more than 20,000 gallons of diesel, partly because of a mechanical problem. Still, the Empress stayed stuck, even when three tugboats teamed up to yank and pivot the ship off its perch. Rescuers may try to come up with a new plan or may give the tugs another try. Crews are being careful not to injure any workers or spill any of the thousands of gallons of fuel left on the ship. None of the diesel taken off the ship spilled. Divers and inspectors have found no damage to the boat, but they have not been able to assess the portion of the hull sitting on the sand, gravel and rock bar. OregonLive

I am signing off the story for now please check 2nd Mate Christine Klimkowski’s NowPublic page as well as my original NowPublic post for further updates.

Continued coverage of this incident: LINK

John A. Konrad, Master Mariner

John Konrad is a USCG licensed Master Mariner of Unlimited Tonnage currently working as Chief Mate aboard a 835′ ship in the Gulf of Mexico. Since graduating from SUNY Maritime College he has sailed in 4 of the worlds oceans and reports from his ship via satellite.

Empress of the North Cruise Ship Emergency Empress of the North Rescue Operations

Empress Cruise Ship

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Categories: Cruise Ship · Incidents · Lifesaving Incidents

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Viewing 7 Comments

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    It's great to see true maritime accuracy on the coverage of this story. And I'd like to add my two cents...

    My name is Christine Klimkowski, and I sail as Third Mate onboard a 853' cargo ship in the Gulf of Alaska. I am familiar with SE Alaska, since I worked onboard another small cruise ship in the area. I saw the Empress of the North on her maiden voyage in Petersberg three years ago. Although, SE Alaska is largely made up of very deep fjords, there are some shoals and rock areas. And John Konrad brings up a very good point in noting that this is not the first time this ship has run aground. But I'd like to mention that in the past 10 years a number of cruise ship have run aground in SE Alaksa with little or no press coverage. And as this area becomes more frequetly vistied by cruise ships, we must become more mindful of the toll it will have on the environment and the safety of tourists.
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    Very good story. As an unlimited tonnage master mariner I often see “troubled” vessels that have a history of incidents. It is obvious that this company’s Management System is failing. With a proper Management system laid out by ISM the operation, maintenance, crewing, and training of the crew should prevent most of incidents that the Empress of the Sea has been involved in.
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    I have worked in the Pacific Northwest for the last six years including a lot of time on the Columbia River and in SE Alaska. Why all the negative press for this incident? I would like to see any vessel who has gone up and down the Columbia as much as this ship not ever find a sandbar. It is called the Mighty Columbia because there is a lot of water going down it, and water moves earth creating and destroying sandbars constantly.

    The Managment System of this vessel is not failing. The press has failed to point out that the company that owns this has recently been bought out and the captain and at least one mate have left. No matter how good your managment system is with all that shaking up going on it is not going to be fool proof.

    It makes me sick to see all this negative press, is there nothing else newsworthy to report, it hit a rock, that is news, but do you have to dig up all the dirt you can find about it's history?

    As for the CDC, when I worked on passenger vessels it amazed me at the amount of regulations enforced by the CDC. FDA, ADEC and the like. Many boats fail, not all, but again, it just seems like they are trying to kick them when they are down. There is not much of an excuse in failing but a lot of boats fail the first and pass the second. They were still allowed to carry passengers so it couldn't have been that bad.

    Personally I did not know whether to laugh at the articles pointing out the history of the 'Empress' or balk in disgust, but I certainly knew I would not consider it as viable news.
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    In the U.S. Navy, hitting the bottom is sin number one. The Commander in such an incident as this should pack his gear quickly because he is bound for a "Long Green Table" where he'll give his side of the case but he is not going back to his command in any case. And will never command again.

    John E. Carey
    Commander, USN (Retired)
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    "but do you have to dig up all the dirt you can find about it’s history?"

    YES. I don't think they were digining up anything. You make it sound like they went out of their way to find stuff. The last sinking was a cover story in an 2006/2007 issue of proceedings, which is a must read magazine for all US mariners. I would have thought they were idiots if they didn't uncover this. Oh and the title of the proceedings story "YOU'RE GROUNDED!".

    I think gcaptain was too nice. They did not blame anyone spcificaly and they even said what a great job the crew did: see gcaptain's (unofficialsquaw's) comments towards bottom.

    I agree with Cmdr Carey, some needs to get fire over this.
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    To put my last comment in context, I had been trying for a couple of days to find out exactly what happened that put the Empress on the rock. I could find no real information about the current incident just stuff that happened in the past. It seemed every news paper and news websight was falling over themselves to talk about past incidents while not giving any real information to tell us what caused the incident at hand. I was a little frustrated.

    Lots of ships hit rocks and make magazine covers. Take the Wilderness Adventurer for example, hit a rock a pretty much sank back in '99. Makes the cover of the Coast Guard Magazine. Then, in '04 it pokes a hole in the side again, starts taking on water, all passengers have to be offloaded, it goes under its own power to Juneau and nary a word in the press about it. Why not all the articles digging up all of its previous mistakes? I just find it odd that all the news outlets picked this little ship to dwell on. A ship sinks off the coast of Greece, two people misssing presumed dead, multiplt criminal charges against ships officers, and its in the news for a day or two. The Empress hits a rock limps home and it stays in the news for over a week. I don't get it.

    I have no problem with someone getting fired over this, as Chief Engineer I am well aware of there being certain things that if they ever happened I would just pack my bags and walk away, it is sort of un unwritten rule with mariners, for some things, there is no redemption.

    I just look forward to finding out what really happened that put the Empress on th rock this time (not last time, or the time before, or the time before....)
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    Check out their latest 2 posts. I think it's clear from them that it was caused by a lack of situational awareness by a green 3rd mate and an overly trusting (or overly lazy) captain.

    http://gcaptain.com/maritime/blog/wanted-captai...

    http://gcaptain.com/maritime/blog/alaska-cruise...

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