Mario Vittone

Editor’s Note: This is part 1 of Mario Vittone’s 8-part series from the U.S. Coast Guard’s formal hearing into the October 29, 2012 sinking of the tall ship Bounty off the...

What happened to Bounty on the morning of October 29th, 2012? Finding out what went wrong and why, when things happened or didn’t, and who said what to whom –...

At the start of each day of the hearings, Commander Kevin Carroll does the same thing: he reads a statement.  He tells all in attendance, “The purpose of the investigation...

Tangled in rigging, he was dragged under the water again.  This time he wasn’t coming up. With no chance to get a breath and struggling to free himself, he started...

Sometimes bad things happen. We do something that we shouldn’t and that leads to tragedy. Do the right thing at the wrong time or the wrong thing anytime and you...

Tall ship sailors are so easy to like. When you meet them, within minutes, you know you are meeting someone who is doing exactly what they love. They are not...

When solving a mystery, an investigator looks for evidence. On the third day of testimony at the joint Coast Guard/NTSB hearings in Portsmouth, Virginia, I was reminded just how hard...

The witness, Todd Kosakowski, looked at Coast Guard’s evidence # CG-41:  a series of 29 photographs he had taken of Bounty during its most recent yard period. Mr. Kosakowski –...

By Mario Vittone As I write this, the Coast Guard is still searching for two sailors missing from the the tall ship Bounty; the ship itself lies on the bottom...

A little, Sort Of. Back on February 1st 2009, though boat owners and ship riders didn’t hear it, there were celebrations all over the rescue world as the COSPAS-SARSAT system...

Standing on the bridge wing of a container ship years ago, a captain was telling me all about the Williamson Turn and how effective it was at putting his massive...

Sitting in the chief’s office of Coast Guard Station Fairport Harbor in Mentor, Ohio, I’m reading the legal release that I have to sign if I want to be part...

Imagine, if you can, the confluence of events that would have to take place to leave you with marine flares being your primary method of signaling distress.  The number of devices that...

The reaction to an article posted here on gCaptain and again here on my site has been just this side of overwhelming.  I’d like to thank everyone who reposted –...