Just hours after a tanker lost its steering and slammed into a docked river cruise ship in New Orleans, the city's port authority went to court to ensure federal investigators can seize the vessel, which is owned by a subsidiary of a Chinese company.
All 197 passengers and crew aboard the American Heritage survived Friday's collision, as did the crew of the tanker. Officials said 32 people were taken to hospital, including two police officers who were thrown into the Mississippi River when the cruise ship rolled. None of the injuries were considered critical, and eight people remained hospitalized on Saturday.
The lawsuit, filed by the Board of Commissioners of the Port of New Orleans, says the Atlantic Asphalt tanker caused at least $1 million US in damage to its terminal. A judge issued a warrant on Friday giving federal officials control of the ship for now.
The tanker has been towed away from the site, but it could take weeks to move the cruise ship, which remains turned on its side against a terminal in the Mississippi River, Coast Guard Capt. Melanie Burnham told reporters on Saturday. She said the first step is making sure the 60,500 litres of fuel on the boat are removed safely. Traffic on the river has been limited, but Burnham said boats should be able to move both upstream and downstream soon.
The tanker appeared to lose steering, though the exact cause of the crash is not yet known, Burnham said. The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board is sending investigators to New Orleans.
Passenger Joe Knab told local outlet WDSU-TV that the first warning for those aboard the American Heritage was the tanker blasting its horn several times as it floated toward them. The impact was hard, the ship began leaning immediately, and the crew gathered everyone on the third deck to put on life vests before the vessel suddenly rolled, sending Knab and about 100 other passengers and crew into the muddy river, where the water was 19 C. Tugboat operators, other cruise ship captains, nearby workers, police and other rescuers rushed to help.
"It's fine now, but it was a little scary there at the time. I thought I was drowning because I kept bobbing underneath, and the water doesn't taste very good," Knab told the television station, still wearing the mud-covered jeans he had on during the crash. He estimated he spent about 15 minutes in the water and said his 20 years in the Navy likely helped. "They taught us not to drown," he said. Knab was wearing a shirt from a Hilton hotel where passengers had gathered; the rest of his belongings were in the river, though his cellphone somehow still worked. He hoped to fly home soon to Wichita, Kansas, but was unsure how Friday's nationwide ground stop would complicate the trip.
New Orleans Harbor Police Chief Melanie Montroll said putting life vests on passengers as they waited to get off the boat likely saved a number of lives when the ship suddenly turned into the water. "Whether it's 10 feet of water or 200 feet, having those vests, having that population put those vests on and kind of float upriver while we retrieve them, I think was the best factor of success," Montroll said. The American Heritage had been finishing an eight-day cruise to several Mississippi River destinations.
The Atlantic Asphalt is a 160-metre-long vessel that was sailing under a Marshall Islands flag and had a final destination of New Orleans, according to the shipping tracker MarineTraffic. It is owned by Nave Shipping SA, a company registered in Monrovia, Liberia, according to the International Maritime Organization, and Nave Shipping was named as a defendant in Friday's lawsuit.
Nave Shipping is a subsidiary of the China State Shipbuilding Corporation, a sprawling Chinese state-owned conglomerate, according to MarineTraffic. China State Shipbuilding Corp. did not respond to an emailed request for comment. The tanker involved in the crash specializes in carrying large quantities of asphalt and bitumen, a semi-solid substance often used for road construction and roofing.
