Almost six years to the day after the 738-foot
cargo ship slammed onto the rocks of Unalaska Island and caused a major spill of soybeans and oil, a similar ship is adrift and in danger of a Saturday collision with a nearby island in Alaska's rocky Aleutian Chain.
Pushed steadily south and east by gale force winds, the 738-foot, Liberian-registered Golden Seas has been either dead adrift or battling massive seas with limited power since at least sometime late Thursday. Twenty people are reported aboard the ship. It's carrying a cargo of rapeseed, a plant in the mustard family once used to make lubricating oils for machinery but now mainly converted to cooking oil.
The rapeseed is not expected to cause major environmental damage if the ship goes aground, but the Golden Seas is also carrying more than a half-million gallons of oil, primarily heavy fuel oil. The Alaska Department of Environmental conservation reported the ship had 520,400 gallons of so-called Bunker C oil, 11,748 gallons of diesel, and 10,000 gallons of lubricating oil.
A tug has been called to assist the ship, but will not be able to reach her until sometime Saturday. The crew of the Golden Seas has reported to the Coast Guard that the turbocharger on the vessels lone engine failed and can't be repaired at sea. The engine is running, however, and has enough power to move the Golden Seas forward if conditions permit.
Early Friday evening, the crew reported the ship had begun to make headway to seaward against lessening winds and settling seas, but how long that might last was an unknown.
The National Weather Service still had gale warnings posted for the night, although the weather was expected to moderate into the weekend, with the winds easing to 20 knots by Sunday and the seas dropping to 9 feet.
That can only help if the tug gets there on time. The ocean-going tug Tor Viking was on the way to the scene from Dutch Harbor Friday evening. A marine-tracking services showed it several miles out of Dutch at 6:30 p.m. Friday, making almost 15 knots to the northwest. At that speed, it should be able to reach the Golden Seas sometime Saturday evening.
Shell Oil vessel ready to help
Also reported to be under way with the Viking is the M/V Nanuq, a 300-foot offshore oil response vessel that can help with cleanup if the Golden Seas hits ground and spills oil. The Nanuq was brought north last summer by Shell Oil, which hoped to start drilling for oil in the Chukchi Sea north of the Aleutians. (Read more about the Nanuq: Offshore oil fuels Young and Murkowski campaigns) Those plans came to a screeching halt when BP's Deepwater Horizon offshore well exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, sank and started gushing oil. An immediate shutdown of all drilling off the U.S. coast was ordered. Shell's Alaska plans have been on hold ever since, but the ship it left stationed in Dutch might be called into service to help with oil-spill cleanup anyway.
On Friday afternoon, Alaska DEC was calculating that 20- to 30-foot seas and 35- to 40-knot winds from the northwest could push the Golden Seas onto the rocks on or near Atka Island, about 400 miles west of Unalaska, by 4 a.m. Saturday. At the time of DEC's report, the ship was being pushed southeast at a rate of 2.5 knots. The projections were that the ship could hit several small islands north of Atka or ground at Korovin Bay or Korovin Lagoon on Atka. Those areas are within the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge, home to endangered Steller's eiders and northern sea lions.
The situation changed significantly shortly thereafter, however, when the Golden Seas reported it had begun to gain some sea room. Where it might ground now -- if it grounds -- is unknown. The Tor Viking was not expected to be of much help to the Golden Seas in high winds and heavy seas, but if those settle as projected the tug could help nurse the struggling ship safely into port.
A Dec. 19, 2004 over-flight photo shows the bow and stern sections of the 378-foot freighter Selendang Ayu near Skan Bay. (U.S. Coast Guard photo)Rick Steiner, an advocate for Alaska shipping safety, said he is hoping for the best, though the crisis still looks like it could turn into an instant replay of the Selendang Ayu, which left six crew members dead. More would have died if not for the heroics of Coast Guard helicopter pilots and rescue swimmers. They were all standing by again Friday night, along with the crews of two Coast Guard cutters, in case it became necessary to evacuate the Golden Seas crew.
Weather in the Bering Sea Friday night was typically torturous, as is the norm for December. Temperatures were just above freezing and the wind howling. The hostile conditions, Steiner said, are what make tanker traffic there risky, but the key and shortest ocean shipping route between major West Coast ports and Asia goes through the heart of the area. The straightest line from Puget Sound to Asia follows what is called the Great Circle Route through a gap between the Aleutian islands just off the Alaska mainland, along the north edge of the chain, and then back south near the end of the chain.
The Golden Seas was on its way from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada to the United Arab Emirates when its engine failed. While hopeful the ship can be saved, Steiner said it once again illustrates why a speedy, ocean-rescue tug should be staged at Unimak Island or Dutch Harbor. Steiner made a special plea to Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin in 2008 to do that, noting that it was nice she was at the time chastising Exxon for not paying Alaskans more for suffering emotionally through the company's massive oil spill, but adding that it would be even better to do something to prevent the next one.
Steiner notes that the only ocean-going rescue tug in the state is stationed in Prince William Sound, which is visited once a day by a tanker bound for the terminus of the trans-Alaska oil terminal in Valdez. Ten times as much traffic passes the Aleutians every day, he said, and it seems just a matter of time before there is a major oil spill there due to the lack of resources to help a floundering ship.
With luck, though, this one can still be saved, despite the minimal safety net.
The Golden Seas is operated by Allseas Marine, a Greek company. It is a near twin of the Selendang Ayu. After that accident, investigators faulted the skipper for shutting down his engine to try to repair it in 25- to 30-foot seas, when he could have limped the ship into Dutch Harbor, and for waiting 11 hours after the engine became inoperable to notify authorities that the ship was in trouble.
Contact Craig Medred at craig(at)alaskadispatch.com.