Owners of vessels damaged on Mississippi start suits against owners of runaway bulk carrier

San Francisco: The owner of a tanker allegedly rammed and damaged on Monday by a runaway bulk carrier on the Mississippi River filed suit for damages in a US District Court in New Orleans on Friday.

Bravo Shipping made the filing as owner of the oil tanker Bravo (61,336 dwt, built 2011) which was allegedly hit by bulk carrier M/V Privocean (81,434 dwt, built 2013) after the latter became unmoored. Bravo was docked at the Ergon-St.James oil storage dock near Convent, Louisiana at the time of the incident.

The District Court judge ordered the arrest of the Privocean, moored at Grammercy.

There are a number of charges in the suit against Privocean’s Greek owners, topped by “operating the ship in a negligent and unseaworthy manner.”

Suits have also been filed against Privocean by dock owner Ergon-St James, and by Crescent Towing and Salvage, owner of the tugboat Texas that was tethered to the Privocean and was dragged along by it on its wild and damage-strewn ride.

In its federal suit, Crescent Towing claims the crew of its much-smaller tug struggled to push on the Privocean’s bow as they tried to avoid the impending crash.

And in a statement on Friday Crescent Towing praised the tugboat’s crew for displaying “extreme heroism” in their actions.