Worst captains in the GOM

I sailed with a guy who’s claim to fame was finding seven haitian stowaways on the barge he was towing out of Santo Domingo, D. R… He put them in life jackets and threw them overboard a little over a mile from the breakwall. Three showed up in D. R… He got in some trouble but basically got off because no bodies were found. What a prince among men. may he be under the wheels of a bus, even as I type this.

Wow! Small world! I sailed with the same guy for little over a year. He’s definitely a piece of work. Ran into him 2 years ago, he claims he got on with Crowley working on one of the oil field tugs off of Africa.

Good place for him. I hope he catches malaria. and gets hit by a bus on the way to a doctor!

Just had a shrimp boat cross our bow while dragging at Belle Pass 1&2. We, being on the Stone Buccaneer (mini-tanker) had to back down pretty damn hard. Name of the boat was Sea Queen IV. Usually when they cross ahead they do it pretty damn quick but this was just awful… No answer to radio calls or spotlight… I guess you guys are right, it will most likely take a bad collision before coast guard reacts.

It just doesn’t get any worse than the Houma/Heather Lynn II incident back in '96.
Still no changes by the CG.

I was in the GOM in '96. That doesn’t ring a bell. Do tell.

The other GOM, Gulf of Maine.

K-Sea tug Houma southbound off Cape Ann, nighttime.
40-odd foot fishing boat Heather Lynne II, crew probably asleep, overran the tow wire.
Capsized. Tug flopped around and rigged a hawser, bringing the Heather Lynne alongside.
Many other Fishing Vessels on scene, could hear pounding and screams from inside.

CG showed up and mainly did crowd control.
A big dragger and a scalloper wanted to hook up their winches and tow wires to the Heather Lynne but were driven off by the CG.
Tug crew wanted to chop a hole in the hull but again, the CG said “NO!”.

CG helo showed up and their rotor wash caused the Heather Lynn to roll and sink with the loss of all hands.

I don’t remember for sure if it was “Lynn” or “Lynne”.
I think the CG on scene commander was 20 something with less than 2 years service.
I was on a vessel near enough to follow it on VHF, I know the scalloper Captain that was on scene.
He says the CG threatened them with force if they didn’t back off.
Keep in mind, draggers and scallopers have lots of rigging. They could LIFT, not just PULL, a small boat

There was no fault assigned to the crew of the Houma.
They tried radio calls, searchlight, changed course, horn…no response.

It was really tragic.

[FONT=verdana][B]Dead Men Tapping : The End of the Heather Lynn II [Hardcover][/B]

Kate Yeomans (Author)

I just ordered it.
I know there was a lawsuit, not sure of the results.
[/FONT][FONT=verdana]
[/FONT]

[QUOTE=rkbakula;51520]other than the ‘‘foreign’’ shrimp boat captains, there is a captain known as ‘‘Skinny Stick’’ that is high up on the list.[/QUOTE] I guess somebody don’t like me. Oh how will I ever sleep. I guess since all the other captains I have sailed with gives me high remarks I don’t have to worry about this.

I think you should tell us how you really feel![QUOTE=seadog6608;52165]Good place for him. I hope he catches malaria. and gets hit by a bus on the way to a doctor![/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=chemcarrier;52564]I think you should tell us how you really feel![/QUOTE]I don’t feel that way about too many people, but for that assclown, I feel that way in spades. I wouldmn’t piss on the bastard if he was on fire. I would stand over his writhing body and laugh if he fell to the deck with a heart attack. On a delivery job to Brasil, he refused to stand a watch. Just locked himself in his room with cases of beer and booze and showed up on deck every other day harrassing anyone and everyone. One psycho asswipe for sure.
We stayed in port for a while. When he got word of a change in the boat’s status he bailed. With the Master’s cash.

Didn’t happen in the GOM but was a N.O. company:

[I]“For the next two days, the Green Wave drifted on the high seas while the crew labored unsuccessfully to repair the vessel’s engine. The Green Wave requested and received prompt assistance from the Polar Star, a Coast Guardcutter. The Polar Star began towing the Green Wave toward Christchurch, New Zealand. Over the next two weeks, while the vessel was being towed to port, Motts was bed-ridden in his quarters and mattress on the floor of his ship’s office. Over that time his condition did not improve, and he remained in severe pain, causing Captain Stalkus to suspect that Motts had in fact suffered a very serious injury, not a soft-tissue injury. LMS’s personnel officer testified that he knew the type of injury Motts had could result in Motts’s death. Despite the fact that the Polar Star was equipped with an x-ray machine and staffed by a nurse practitioner, neither Stalkus nor LMS ever requested that Motts be examined or treated on the Polar Star. Indeed, [B]Coast Guard personnel were informed, misleadingly, that the Chief Engineer had suffered only a “minor injury.”[/B] Nor did LMS ever ask the Coast Guard to use one of the helicopters aboard the Polar Star to evacuate Motts, even though such an evacuation was feasible and safe. Similarly, [B]neither Stalkus nor LMS informed GWU that the Green Wave was being towed by a vessel with such medical facilities[/B]. The district court found LMS’s conduct to be “utterly negligent and downright inhumane.” The district court also found that LMS’s failure to have in place any plan for evacuating injured seamen constituted “conscious indifference to the rights and safety or welfare of injured seamen on GCL’s vessels, and in particular Neville Motts.” Motts v. M/V Green Wave, 50 F. Supp.2d. 634, 642 (S.D. Tex. 1999).”[/I]

FWIW, Motts died of complications from his injuries but the CG never even questioned Stalkus about this incident, they claimed the incident was never reported to them and they claimed to know nothing about it ever happening even though the local CG offices were just down the hall from the LMS (Central Gulf) office where all communications with the ship were taking place. Even after the trial transcripts which detailed the horrors of Mott’s mistreatment were delivered to USCG investigators, nothing ever happened. The CG, the union, and the courts did nothing to remove this captain … watch your back guys.

I have heard of some horror stories from that boat, but usually it is referred to as “The Green Slave”

I suppose that name only tells half the story here… It should be “The Green You’re Gonna Die”