Not entirely. He had his license suspended.
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Thatâs what I donâ t understand.
An experienced watch-stander would have been expected to notice the helmsman had eased the rudder without an order.
An experienced ship handler would have know to have used more rudder to begin with.
An experienced navigator would have been able to know where the ship was without resorting to position fixing on the chart.
The third mate was none of those things , most third mate are not.
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You are correct, Cousins, thankfully didnât escape completely unscathed. He apparently thought the suspension unfair as he tried (and failed) to appeal it.
Edit: Cousins appealed the severity of the sanction as being âclearly excessiveâ.
Your question regarding allowing Cousins on my vessel? Probably not. I liked to get my rest after watch, and stay off the 6 o clock news. Sorry for Hazlewoodâs sake that 2 or 3 minutes he left early cost him a lot. Sad story all around. That Cousins turned on the captain for his mistake and the attorneys seeking to blame everyone but their client is normal. USCG did not drive that vessel on the reef. They werenât on the bridge for a rather simple maneuver that was advised before it didnât happen. Wonder if the gal Maureen is still in the industry?
He also tried to throw the helmsman under the bus.
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Third Mate
Your article is right on point. The helmsman was under Cousins control after recieving under his own admission getting âPrudent and practicalâ instructions. Supposedly, he understood that. It was his baby after that. JMHO
That was typical for the time, 3 or 4 hours was not unheard of. In addition to all hands on deck to top off tanks, it was common on the ships I worked on for the 2nd Mate to take the first half of the Chief Mateâs 4x8 watch and the 3rd to take the second half once we got underway as the Chief Mate had even less rest.
It was still better than running from LA/LB to Estero Bay and back. At least on Valdez to Ferndale we had one full day at sea to rest.
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Even with the changes of OPA 90, rest is still an issue to this day. Was so glad to get away from the port after loading or discharging⌠Crewing numbers of the past is gone. We have all been tasked to pick up the slack from the efficeincy experts recommendations who never turned a valve or spent a minute on deck. Some things never change, despite âLawsâ that say they do.
Heard she was a Master with TECO not long ago (the mid-2000âs or thereabouts) but where she is now I have no clue. Probably retired, just a guess.
Good guess. TECO is pretty much out of the industry too, glad she carried on. That was a tough job. Good for her.
Using an unsupervised third mate to maneuver a supertanker at night in restricted waters just violates fundamental precepts of seamanship. None of the details of this incident change that.
The captain changed course towards the reef, put the engine on load-up and left the wheelhouse. The third mate making a mistake might have been low probability but undeniably high consequence.
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Undeniably
He had more experience than this 3rd Mate.
The junior third mate, a newly licensed officer, was on his first navigation watch when the vessel struck the rockâŚ
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Thatâs true. But Iâve trained too many third mates to have a lot of faith in their ship handling ability. It did surprise me when my last chief mate was unaware of the concept of the pivot point.
Greg was demoted back to AB, I had him on my watch on his first trip back. We never spoke about it at all. He was ( sure still is) a very good man.
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I passed her on the gâway in 2001 as she took he first Master gig and I had a few brief interactions with her. She had a great reputation and was held in high regard by all who worked with her and worked opposite her.
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I never heard anything bad about her.
That she retired was just my shrug and assumption. She may be shoreside, she may be a pilot somewhere, she may be working small vessels. Havenât the foggiest.
I believe someone on the forums elsewhere mentioned that Greg Cousins changed his name and continued his climb to Master in anonymity, or as close to it as possible.
Cousins was CM with Liberty back in the early 2000âs, not sure what he or Mo are up to now.
Uh oh! Sounds like you need to go back over the reportâŚ
The Old Man made the turn.
This has always been a big âWTFâ for me. Alter the vesselâs course towards a reef, then leave the bridge.??? I suppose one possibility is the Captain had planned to be below for just a minute, then got distracted and lost situational awareness.