E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSS
Petty Officer 3rd Class Jonathan Klingenberg / U.S. Coast Guard
The Army vessel Monterrey is grounded on Puffin Island in Chiniak Bay near Kodiak on Saturday. A boom was placed around the vessel to help contain spilled diesel.
A 174-foot Army Reserve landing craft carrying equipment to help move an Alaskan village struck a rock in a bay near Kodiak, then was run aground to keep the vessel from sinking, causing thousands of gallons of fuel to spill, Coast Guard and Army Reserve officials said Saturday.
The Monterrey was crossing Womens Bay with a crew of 15 aboard on Friday night when it struck a submerged rock, said Petty Officer 3rd Class Grant DeVuyst, a Coast Guard spokesman in Kodiak. The Coast Guard received a Mayday about 10:15 p.m. local time, and the vessel was grounded about four miles away on Puffin Island in Chiniak Bay, DeVuyst told msnbc.com.
Two fuel compartments appeared to have been breached, spilling more than 15,000 gallons of diesel fuel, DeVuyst said. He said that the fuel was expected to disperse but that the Coast Guard was working to get skimmers in to clean up any remaining diesel.
The Monterrey was traveling from Port Hueneme, Calif., to Bethel in western Alaska, carrying a load of construction equipment and vehicles for the Marine Corps, said Maj. Annmarie Daneker, media relations officer with the Army Reserve in Fort Bragg, N.C.
Daneker told msnbc.com that three crew members who suffered minor injuries were taken to Kodiak, treated and released.
Daneker said the first focus would be on cleaning up any spilled fuel, then getting the equipment off the Monterrey. She said the Army Reserve would dispatch another vessel to pick up the equipment unless the Marine Corps required a quicker effort.
The construction equipment was to be used in a federal project to move the villagers of Newtok to Mertarvik, about nine miles away, the Army Reserve said in a statement. The Marine Corps is leading the construction of an emergency shelter, homes, roads and an airfield for the villagers.
Newtok, a Yupik Eskimo village of about 400 people on the Ninglick River in western Alaska, is threatened by erosion and melting and sinking permafrost.
More content from msnbc.com and NBC News:
Leave a Comment:
VH Navy, Did you go to school at NAS Memphis, or the Jax School? I went to AQ @ NAS Memphis. Also known as Rat Center Mucus.
You and the other commenters are correct in wondering why "Doggies" are attempting to "drive" a ship. They aught to have left it to a black shoe, and it would have not been in the news. Because it wouldn't have been run aground.
Poor Alaska...Worst thing for them was to become an acquired State.
Purpose: acquire their oil!!!!!!
** Exxon Valdez disaster happened because of oil.
Caused major devastation to the bays, killed massive marine life and wildlife.
**JAPAN: regularly dumps mega tons of highly radioactive water into the ocean.
BlueFin Tuna now contaminated with high levels of radiation.
(no one stops Japan...from destroying the Pacific!!!!!!!!)
***A few wks ago a Japan large junk (ship) arrives off coast and sunk by the U S Coast Guard..
NOT salvageable due to high radiation...and sunk in ALASKA waters!!!!!!!
Japan needs to be charged for all this junk coming to our shores and held responsible for
the clean up!!!!!!!!!!
Hawkeye -
Can you provide direction to the reports of the high radiation associated with that fishing vessel that the Coast Guard sank? I believe the reason it wasn't towed/salvaged had to do with logistics. You realize that the nuclear problem there occurred days after the tsunami swept all that crap out to sea, right?
BTW: It was a fishing vessel, not a junk. A junk is a Chinese sailing vessel.
Don't let a lack of knowledge stand in the way of a good rant, though!
Hawkey: This is your idea of posting something intelligent and informative? How did the rest of your seventh grade class feel about this? There is nothing like getting a fake name and filling these comment pages with misinformation. The Exxon Valdez spill occurred for the same reason that this one did, poor information on the unseen obstructions. I have owned several boats in Alaska and know some of the coast quite well. The Exxon Valdez captain was in his bunk asleep at the time of the incident. There was serious environmental damage because no one had asked the oil companies to bond or insure against the level of damage the large tankers were capable of doing if they ran aground.
Since that time, Prince William Sound (less than 15 miles from my front door) has been cleaned up and is one of the best places in Alaska for fishing, (the source of the famous "Copper River Reds"), sight seeing, whale watching, photography, etc.
This is my real name and I am also on Facebook.
'Irregardless' (Couldn't pass that up, haha) the Taxpayers are going to pay for this 'grounding', be it a charted or Uncharted rock, aren't we?
Waddaya wanna bet NO One on the boat takes a lick for this; Now who's the smartest?
Don't they have some kind of depth device or underwater detection that they use when coming close to land.
depth finder only works for what your on top of (like a fish finder), its not SONAR!
Yes, and they work fine on a sea bottom and give a good indication of it's decreasing depth in shallow water, but large rocks have this nasty habit of jumping up out of nowhere and smiting you. You feel the bang just about the time you see a vertical line on the screen. If you're lucky, you have just enough time to say "Oh sh.......".
As to those mentioning charts and their use, remember that the farther north you go, the greater the tidal differential. There are areas north of CONUS with a tidal differential of over 50ft. It means nothing in deep blue water, but it's the difference between a floating vessel and a monument in shallow water. After a long haul from California, I wonder if the skipper was even aware of the tide state at that particular time of day. For those that don't know, the depth indications on nautical charts are at mean low tide. For all we know, they were floating along in water showing 20ft deeper than the charts indicated. Till he hit the rock. Local knowledge can be a lifesaver at times.
If you look at the picture of the boat just off the shoreline, it's quite possible the rock they hit was above the mean low tide line and therefore wouldn't even be marked on a nautical chart. Although the skipper will take the heat for this, I can see how it could easily happen.
Ummm, there is a reason why they are called "dirt diggers".....let the Navy do that job for ya boys....I would be happy to come back and help...lol
Who gave the Army boats? WTF!
General George Washington crossed the Delaware in an Army boat!
Isn't this why we have a special group of people called the " NAVY " to do this kind of stuff !!! You know people who's job is to work on the water !!!
Navy works the deep water, Army works the shallow water i.e. Alaskan rivers
Aren't landing craft supposed to run a ground?
Hence the name? Can't they just reset the simulator
like they do in training?
Why are the taxpayers moving this village? Thanks Mr. President for throwing even more of our money away.
He spends like my X. I dumped her and I will not vote for him for the 2nd time. It's easy to spot an economic moron when you lived with one.
Literally thousands of miles of pipe has an amazing record for the environment. Tankers/Trucks/Trains? 40% larger carbon foot print.
But facts and figures are not going to stop that idiot in the White House.
FYI - do your own damn research!
The Army has to have boats because they don't teach the grunts to swim ;-) It is amazing how uncoordinated the multiple branches of the services are. They act like Congress ... dumb to the core (pun intended).
Maybe this Boat Captain just got done reading a “Sarah Palin” book….became Confused, Irrational and Lost his Mind. It seems to be a “Side Effect”.
You BetCha….Fer Sure.
The eskimos are being relocated so Barrick Gold can get in their with their gold mining equipment. Since the price of gold has been well over $1400/1500/oz for some time it is now profitable to mine in places that formerly were not.
So the eskimo village gets moved.
It has nothing to do with permafrost melting. That is just what the liberal press is told to get them excited about global warming and off the scent of Barrick Gold!
jello heads!
As a mariner myself in Alaskan waters sometimes, what I want to know is: Was the rock marked on the navigation chart? If it was, hmmm. If it was not, are they taking the necessary steps to notify NOAA the coordinates there of so I don't hit the darn thing and spill my 400 gallons of diesel fuel too.
you would think with all of this hi tech underwater tracking and sonar/radar they would of moved around this rock
An Army boat (1st problem) that is a landing craft hit a submerged rock (shouldn't a landing craft be able to deal with un-even terrain - 2nd problem). And it all happened in "Women's Bay". Tosh.0 is going to love this.
hey army, better leave the ocean to us sailors:D
This was a good read until the political parrots got on.
Have a great weekend all the rest of you!
Hell I grew up there! All my family is still there. *Sigh* They better get this mess cleaned up fast.
It the oil compaines aren't destorying our shore lines the military will. This is democracy at work, isn't wonderful.
Gary, we live in a Republic not a Democracy. Oil companies would prefer to drill on land but the Left makes it hard to do so even though clean up would be so much easier.
Do you use oil ? I do ,as does everyone i know.
As for the Military comment . Your freedom to make it was paid for by someone in Uniform.
first of all, there is more "on land drilling" going on now then ever. the left has always said "drill on land first. ocean second. as far as being a "republic, Please take note: our house of rep = democracy,,,,senate=republic. court = rule of law,,,and president is unitary leaser, THAT WOULD MAKE US ONE SIXTH REPUBLIC. aND PLEASE DON'T FORGET. CHINA IS A REPUBLIC, SO IS CUBA, IRAN, NORTH KOREA AND RUSSIA. AHHHH SO THATS WHY U WANT US TO BE A REPUBLIC,,,,I GET IT NOW, here's your sign
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzQnBE3mYZg
Watch and learn ...it has nothing to do with parties. Is your sign painted with water based paint?
Dispersed! I'm so sick of that word being used. It's the misleading way of say that it's all mixed into the sea water over too huge an area to even attempt recovery. Even with all this newfangled tech we've got like booms and waiting around long enough for it to all 'disperse' into the rest of the ocean I don't see how so many are opposed to properly regulating off-shore drilling. This is a couple of drops in comparison to a well leak. And this is refined oil, not crude.
Maybe the army should leave boats tot he navy,,,,ya think? lol
New Nanny Government 'created' the perpetually dependency addicted 'new' Inuit. Before 'Nanny govt', the amazing Inuit were self sufficient and survival oriented under Traditional Family structure. Before 'govt' forced 'involvement' onto the little settlements, the Inuit would just adapt to changing conditions...and survive. Now it takes a massive, taxPayer funded 'govt' effort, to get involved in their newly dependency addicted lifestyle. At great expense, pomp and circumstance (wealth redistribution 'Lawsuits' of course), every aspect of their once Freedom loving lives, is micromanaged.
I am sorry for the Inuit. Like the rest of Perpetually Dependency Addicted America, Alcoholism, including overdose on govt supplied, Welfare funded 'meds', leading inevitably to crime, assaults and suicides, is now Rampant. They, as well as the rest of America, had the innocent misfortune to be forcibly overwhelmed by the perpetrators of the 'Great Society and War on Poverty'. They, as well as the rest of America are being 'educated' into Dependency Addiction and the Totalitarian State, running 'Every' aspect of their lives. Now we are 'All' Victims. National Socialism takes it's historically inevitable toll...on Every society it 'Infects'.
The Police and CHP are so treasonous in the So.Cal areas that they have been killing the undercover crews and selling official ,legal and current high intel.undercover vehicles with top secret black boxes on them and running crews of spies that have been hit with anti-terrorist deterant so many times that they are nothing but a bunch of wine-o's and Hypes-the spy on us all day-
This is RE Clinton,Obama,Chicken ,Camel article
Oh NOOOOOOOOOO Mr. Bill, those are a bunch of jews from Riverside ,Ca that are impostering our U.S. Lemurian (Hawaiian Royal Blood) pirates that get our U.S. ships back!!!
We need to reset those systems cus you know that's Kitty Hawk stuff, and well lets give them some BUSH, and then off them-Oh ,I mean get them off of all of us-I am a UN Peacekeeper, Val-they are impostures of my sisters side of the family and I caught a bunch of them out here oil pirating also -it is soooo black pearl, they are holding a Disney heir for a political hostage ,well I caught CHP Officer BRIAN Sm*th presiding over US gov, APEC and UN Vehicle theft and kiddie porn ring by the Pharaoh for an honorable 13 yrs-he said get his name right, and then I told him UN is gonna listen ,so don't worry, he said I need to go 151,I told the High Court and the Yukon Gov. Nato and Interpol, and they popped the Victorville Fire captain(he likes little girls and that big porn ring),and the the San Bernardino CA undercover cop said he was gonna put me (UN/US Gov agent/with Vatican authorities, special op-and a spotless background per AF MPs and FBI and ICC) in jail cus I have bad teeth, HA ,HA TWILITE so we have more than ample amounts of proof of -you know, and then the parking cops said they put a hit on me -a Wright relative with a high court order-then they killed 7 Peacekeepers in the Ivory Coast-so lets get a couple more kitty hawk clone systems from where we stashed um-and kick some fraud as*.-Ask Mr. Powell if we can, and I'll ask the High court.
............oh!
Quick must raise gas prices to $10.00 per gallon!
For all of u the Army has boats and the Navy has ships, the Navy would not know waht to do with this type of boat. Due to the Navy's job specific field. The Army has more than one job on this type of vessel. This is the first time this has happened, up till now no one knew the Army has boats.
The Army has always had boats and ships, mostly civilian manned. And this accident is being debated or blown up, whatever, in these forums because it fits the proprietor's desires to publicize such lapses and also because it is rare.
The Navy still has this type of boat in service. It is in the class of Landing Craft Utility (mike boat)and is used aboard the Amphibious Landing ships.