Ag81Golf said:
My question is would the Pilot aboard the Genesis have been in radio contact with the barge and if so would they coordinate the movements?
Yes, generally, but not always.
The deep draft vessel was a 700+ ft LPG tanker with a Houston Pilot onboard. Sometimes the pilot will initiate contact with the towboat or vice versa to discuss a passing agreement, or simply to clarify what the other intends to do.
All of the radio traffic between these two vessels is captured and archived by the USCG. So whatever was said between the pilot and the towboat, you are gonna have a audio recording of it. So yeah, its possible that there was communication between both vessels at one point but its probably not going to be the case that it was play by play or there was much substantive conversation going on. Whatever they agreed to do as far as passing was concerned, obviously didn't happen as agreed.
Also, there is typically a lot of cross traffic going on because all vessels in the lower HSC are gonna be on the same channel. Typically, once a passing arrangement is made, theres not a whole lot of back and forth as both captains are trying to keep focused on piloting their own vessel.
In this situation the tanker was outbound so there is not much it can do other than stay in the channel, and not hit something. The tanker can slow down or speed up (to an extent) to adjust the timing of when it passes another vessel but as far a steering its way out of a situation .... thats not really possible due to the width of the channel (530 ft) and the amount of time it takes to slow down or speed up a 700ft tanker by any significant margin.
The barge has a lot more leeway when it comes to what it can do. The towboat and barges aren't as constrained by its draft so it had the option to hang back in a barge lane well outside the main channel or in the vicinity of the 'Y' at Bayport until the traffic clears.
Also, one of the reasons that that area where the collision occurred is due to hydrodynamic forces at play. The way the channel is cut in that area can (and has) caused problems before. In that area you have a 40ft channel in the middle of mudflats that are 2-3ft deep. You also have an intersecting channel coming from Bayport that is dredged out to a 'Y' so vessels can turn in and out in to the HSC. In short, it causes weird **** to happen when it comes to steering and maneuverability of a vessel. I guess it would be comparable to steering on ice or snow. You might be fine going in a straight line but the moment you try to change direction the vehicle just doesn't respond like you are use to.
We dont really know the facts of what happened here, but based on the photos, is obvious that the towboat got its barges crossways and in such a situation where it got T-boned by a 700ft tanker. Theres not really any other way to look at it IMO.
Like I said, the tankers options was to stay in the channel go straight and thats about it.
All things considered, the tanker hitting the barge at a 90 degree angle probably prevented a much much worse disaster. The last thing you want is the hull of a tanker getting ripped open from running over a barge at a bad angle ... which has happened before on several occasions.
As an analogy as to size, mass and maneuverability ... the tanker was a mile long freight train and the tow and barges are an 18-wheeler.
If an 18-wheeler gets T-boned by a freight train ... well ... theres not much you can really say about it. Theres only so much a freight train can do, and stopping or turning, ain't really a realistic option.
