LEONARD GRAY / L’Observateur / December 8, 1999

LAPLACE – U.S. Coast Guard investigators said a camshaft pressure failureresulted in the collision Friday morning between a Polish ship and several barges in the Mississippi River.

Lt. (jg) Brian Povince reported that the Solidarnosc, a general cargo shipof Polish registry, was headed downriver at mile post 133 at LaPlace when the engine failure happened.

At 11:08 a.m., despite a standby pump going on, the engine stalled. Aminute later, the engine restarted and the captain ordered the engines to go from full ahead to full astern to avoid striking several moored grain barges.

However, that was apparently too much for the straining engine, which shut down again. The momentum of the drifting ship carried it into a bankof barges near Lucy Marine.

The port anchor was dropped in an attempt to slow the vessel, but two barges were sunk and two or three others took on water. Tugboats rescuedthese, though, and pushed them to the west bank.

Province added that 15 to 20 additional barges also sustained damages, but there were no releases and no injuries in the accident. The ship wastowed to the LaPlace anchorage to await repairs.

The incident remains under Coast Guard investigation.

Return To News Stories