Conception dive boat captain indicted on 34 counts

The airline industry has been aware of the danger of lithium-ion batteries and has followed FAA guidelines that prohibit their carriage in cargo holds because of the risk of fire if they come into contact with metals or other batteries. The Conception’s operators were apparently unaware and the CG didn’t raise the alarm until after the tragedy.


https://safety4sea.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/USCG-CVC-PL-20-03_Carriage-Of-Lithium-Ion-Batteries-On-Small-Passenger-Vessels-2020_10.pdf

‘Battery charging should be restricted to regularly occupied spaces or other spaces with continuous monitoring such as smoke detection.
Charging stations should be single outlet use without linking or combining together multiple power strips or extension cords (“daisy chains”).
Lithium-powered devices and batteries should be removed from the charger once they are fully charged.’

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Blaming the captain is pretty much the only way to trigger insurance coverage for the victims. It’s the same reason the captain and chief can be crushed by a big spill.

I don’t believe that there is going to be a lack of motivation to place the blame on the captain in this case.

Blaming the Captain for this lithium battery triggered fire on a poorly designed and negligently USCG inspected boat is absurd.

The Captain on a small recreational dive boat simply does what the owners tell him to , at small wages, or he is promptly fired, and the owner shouts “next” to the line of wannabe captains with 100 ton licenses waiting outside the door. The captain has zero authority over anything that might cost the owner a few extra dollars.

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In our fleet, we did review and replace old and unapproved power strips over the past several months. Come to think of this, I did the same in my own home, and put my expensive electronics on a small UPS mini tower with a dozen outlets (half on the battery backup). Pricing a second one. You can buy one for a couple hundred dollars. depends on capacity and features you want

An important thing to note- surge protectors aren’t really for high draw items like microwaves, refrigerators and so forth. They should be on their own outlet.

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5 posts were split to a new topic: Washing Machine Maintenance Aboard

Unfortunately the USCG and the Stae attorney general do not agree with your point of view. And the laws clearly hold the Captain accountable.

He may not have authority but he can’t skirt responsibility. He is the one with the license.

I think there is just an assumption here that everyone knows that.

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Tugsailor used the word “blame”. I don’t know who he was talking about, I assumed he was referring to poster on this thread.

The Coast Guard and State AG don’t "blame’ people, they take action against the license and indict, not the same thing.

I guess we could debate the nuances of differences between blame and accountability, but I agree regardless of the verbiage we use, the point is the law is designed to hold the Captain accountable and it will.

If you agree to wear the title of Captain there are very clear expectations regarding your performance as the designated person in charge of a vessel. And if you agree to operate an unsafe vessel or in an unsafe way… even with pressure from owners, customers or managers and there are significant negative outcomes, you will be blamed, held accountable and/or indicted…

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I agree. To say the captain has zero authority is an exaggeration. The responsibility for assigning a night watch is his. He can expect to be held accountable. If he feels he doesn’t have enough crew to do so, it’s on him to address the issue with management. If they ignore him, he has the option of walking away. The issue likely never came up.

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Anyone can blame anybody for anything. To hold accountable implies the authority and the means to do so.

I assume that the dive boat 100 ton Captain, had the average level of skills, experience, and ability of a typical 100 ton Captain.

I have been a hired 100 ton Captain on USCG inspected passenger boats. I have also been a 100 ton passenger vessel owner that hired and fired Captains. As in most things, I’m kind of out of date now. Some things may have changed.

These vessels have a COI issued by the USCG that specifies exactly how many crew and what type of crew are required, and how many extra crewmen (if any) are allowed to be onboard. The COI also specifies the watch system. Most 100 ton passenger vessels have only one “day watch” required by the COI.

In some US passenger boat trades, the day crew will actively operate the vessel less than 12 hours a day, and the vessel will anchor, or tie up at a dock, for the night with passengers aboard. There is no licensed mate or night crew specified in the COI. Nor does the COI require any nightwatch while passengers are aboard. Typically, there will be a “lights out” and bedtime of about 10pm. The watchman (who has undoubtedly worked over 12 hours) will go to bed shortly after lights out. There will be no crew on watch at all until the cook gets up at about 5am. The USCG allows this, and it’s a firmly entrenched custom of the trade. I recall an effort by the USCG years ago to require a licensed mate and a deckhand to stand anchor watch at night. This would have increased costs and reduced passenger capacity and revenues. The owners fought this and the USCG relented.

I know that this sounds rather shocking to a deep sea sailor that works a three watch system specified by the COI with a fully manned watch on duty at all times. It even sounds shocking to most tugboatmen that work a two watch system. But there are one watch passenger boats.

I do not know anything about the California sport dive boat business or it’s customs of the trade. I don’t know what the COI of this particular dive boat required or if it was complied with. I do not know anything about the incident. Apparently, many of the posters on gcaptain know a lot more about this incident than I do. However, I suspect that many posters are simply making assumptions based upon their experience, just as I am.

However, as a former captain, and former owner, of USCG inspected small passenger boats, I view this incident through a different lens.

I have a few thoughts about why the Seamen’s Manslaughter Act, is a bad law, perhaps even an unconstitutional law, but I’ll save them for a future post.

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From the Conception’s COI:

A MEMBER OF THE VESSEL’S CREW SHALL BE DESIGNATED BY THE MASTER AS A ROVING PATROL AT ALL TIMES, WHETHER OR NOT THE VESSEL IS UNDERWAY, WHEN THE PASSENGER’S BUNKS ARE OCCUPIED.

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Ok…

The consensus on this forum with regards to compliance was more or less in agreement with this article.

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This vessel had a required crew of only four men: one master, one mate, and two deckhands for 24 hour operations. A two watch system. The COI allows 103 total persons onboard and operations up to 100 miles offshore with just a four man crew specified. Who thinks this is enough crew?

Among the many tasks required of the four man crew is providing a 24 hour per day roving patrolman. Presumably, the deckhand on watch was expected to be the roving patrolmen, as well as perform his other required duties.

The Captain apparently failed to assign the patrolman specifically required by the COI? Was this a one off lapse, or was the vessel typically operated without the required 24 hour patrolman? By just this Captain? By all this vessel’s captains? By all this owner’s vessels and captains? By all the other vessels and owners and captains engaged in this particular California sport diving trade?

I don’t think that the Captain should be “blamed” for a fire caused by passengers charging the lithium batteries in their devices.

I do, however, agree that the Captain can be held accountable if he failed to post the 24 hour roving patrolman specifically required by the COI.

The Captain, particularly a Captain without license insurance and legal defense insurance, is the low hanging fruit for the prosecutors.

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The COI required only a crew of four, but according to the article they actually had a crew of six. With 34 overnight guests, at least one of the crew, maybe two, was a dedicated cook. A crew of six seems a lot more reasonable than a crew of four. It’s probably enough to have an assigned watchman on duty without routinely violating rest hours rules.

According to the article, it appears that the COI patrolman requirement had been routinely ignored on all the owner’s vessels by all of the captains (and the owner) for many years. It sounds like it may have been an established custom of the entire California sport diving trade to “overlook” the patrolman requirement.

If it was a custom of the trade, I am not surprised. This would put the captain’s conduct in a much better light. It’s one thing to be the only rogue Captain intentionally ignoring a specific COI requirement, but it’s quite another thing to be one of many captains in a trade that has customarily “overlooked” a requirement for many years. In short, it appears that all the captains were “trained” to “overlook” the requirement in this trade.

The Captain is still legally “culpable” or “accountable” for his failure to post a 24 hour patrol as required by the COI, but he is less “blameworthy,” or had less of a guilty state of mind,” if he was merely following an established custom of the trade in the same manner as all the other captains.

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We’ve been through this here on threads after the fire if you care to go back but here’s some background on diveboats. It’s not a 2 watch system, it’s literally a no watch system. I ran them with six person crews and I can say that days were long and tiring and sleep was a valued commodity. The divers were tired after three day and one night dives on successive days. The crew was tired from handling tanks, tending to 2 dozen divers coming on and off, and moving the boat between dives, often at night so it was a 24 hour operation. The cook was the only member of the crew not busy on deck but otherwise, everybody chipped in without a set schedule.
I catnapped during the day and was usually on deck at night enjoying the peace and quiet or navigating if we were travelling, otherwise I made sure one of the crew stayed up. On these small boats, the term roving is a bit wishful. The boats aren’t big enough to have somebody doing walking rounds without waking people up but as it’s been pointed out, someone awake watching a movie in the Conception’s wheelhouse would have made a difference.

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