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 tankerĀ 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 Privoceanās Greek owners, topped by āoperating the ship in a negligent and unseaworthy manner.ā
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 Privoceanās bow as they tried to avoid the impending crash.
And in a statement on Friday Crescent Towing praised the tugboatās crew for displaying āextreme heroismā in their actions.