Coast Guard investigates tanker-dredging ship collide in Newark Bay

The U.S. Coast Guard this morning is continuing its investigation into the collision of two vessels -- an orange juice tanker and a dredging ship -- in the Newark Bay Thursday afternoon, prompting authorities to shut down the harbor for several hours.

The agency released a video of the collision between the tanker vessel Orange Sun and dredge vessel Newark Bay.

No injuries were reported in the mishap, which occurred just before 2 p.m. Thursday.

The bay remained closed until 7 p.m. Thursday as authorities worked to stabilize the dredging ship, Petty Officer Seth Johnson said.

"The Coast Guard will continue monitoring the salvage operations on the dredge New York throughout the night," Lt. Cmdr. Kenneth Moser, chief of incident management at Coast Guard Sector New York, said in a statement.

Coast Guard investigators are still trying to determine exactly what happened, Petty Officer Angelia Rorison said. Officials would not say which ship precipitated the collision.

"It's a fairly large investigation that's going to be taking place," Johnson said.

      
A New Jersey State Police boat, left, circles a dredging boat that was struck by a ship
carrying orange juice (not pictured) at Port Newark.    (Jennifer Brown/The Star-Ledger)

Johnson said there was a light sheen of hydraulic oil in the bay, but no evidence of a major spill - oil or orange juice - from the collision.

"There's no loose OJ," he said.

Five crew members were evacuated from the dredging ship, the New York, which was taking on water, Johnson said. It has since been "dewatered and stabilized," but it was unclear how much damage it suffered, Johnson said.

The other vessel in the collision was The Orange Sun, a 669-footer flying under the Liberian flag with seven crew members, the Coast Guard said. A 117-foot dredging ship, the Melvin Lemmerhirt, was nearby, but managed to get out of the way before the collision, the Coast Guard said.

The two smaller ships had been working on the ongoing dredging of the harbor, officials said.

Source: NJ.com, 25 Januari 2008