# US Maritime Academy makes contact crane.



## Stephen J. Card (Nov 5, 2006)

CSU Maritime Academy ship crashes in Barbados during training cruise 

By Nanette Asimov 

4 hrs ago 

Slide 1 of 2: Launched in 1987, the Golden Bear training ship (formerly the USNS Maury) is a 500-foot ex-research vessel that the Navy used to map the ocean floor. Cal Maritime acquired it in 1996 for students at California State University's Vallejo campus, though the Navy still owns it. 

Slide 2 of 2: Launched in 1987, the Golden Bear training ship (formerly the USNS Maury) is a 500-foot ex-research vessel that the Navy used to map the ocean floor. Cal Maritime acquired it in 1996 for students at California State University's Vallejo campus, though the Navy still owns it.


Hundreds of students on board a California State University Maritime Academy ship for a two-month training cruise got the lesson of their lives as the vessel glided toward a Barbados port and smashed into a crane that sent a mast careening onto the ship’s top deck.

No one was hurt in the Tuesday morning crash. But the 270 students — who had left the Cal Maritime campus in Vallejo May 5 — watched in horror as their ship slid, unstoppable, toward the colossal orange crane that bent over the water in their direction. They gasped as the two metal behemoths collided with a crunch that snapped the ship’s mast like a chopped-down tree.

Instead of enjoying their island port of call, the students spent two days repairing the mast with help from the 58 faculty and staff and handful of experienced mariners on board the Golden Bear training ship.

They never set foot on Barbados.

“I give you my assurance that the vessel is not severely damaged and will be perfectly capable of finishing the cruise safely,” Capt. Sam Pecota, the campus’ former academic dean, said Wednesday in a statement.





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The Golden Bear was not under Pecota’s control at the time of the collision, said Bobby King, Cal Maritime’s spokesman. As happens when a ship prepares to dock, a local pilot boards the ship and guides it to port behind a tugboat.

King said an investigation into the incident by multiple agencies — including the U.S. Coast Guard, the U.S. Maritime Administration and the school — has already begun.

“We aren’t looking for blame,” said Thomas Cropper, a retired U.S. Navy rear admiral who is Cal Maritime’s president. “We try to understand causes so that we can eliminate future problems.”

The ship is a 500-foot former research vessel, launched in 1987, that the Navy used to map the ocean floor. The Navy still owns the ship that Cal Maritime began using in 1996 for training runs that used to be twice a year. Lately, they are an annual event.

Most of the students on board will graduate not only with a bachelor’s degree, but a Coast Guard license. Many hope to become ship captains or maritime engineers, among other seafaring careers.

Meanwhile, the training trip will go on. The students will sail to Lisbon, Portugal, the Azores and the Everglades before ending the cruise on July 1 in Galveston, Texas.

“I’ve never remotely had anything like this happen,” King, the campus spokesman, said of the crash. “It could have been much worse. But it’s part of the learning — it’s not ideal. But things do happen at sea. Things that are beyond your control.

“There certainly is an opportunity to learn something as a result of this.”


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## Stephen J. Card (Nov 5, 2006)

"The Golden Bear was not under Captain Pecota’s control at the time of the collision, said Bobby King, Cal Maritime’s spokesman. As happens when a ship prepares to dock, a local pilot boards the ship and guides it to port behind a tugboat."


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## Stephen J. Card (Nov 5, 2006)

Small clip on www: search GOLDEN BEAR SHIP BARBADOS

The 'mainmast'

The topmast made contact with a gantry and it was 'bent' a bit. Looks a nav light demolished. Easy to run a temporary light. Don't know about the radars. The radars on the foremast were not touched.


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## seaman38 (Mar 16, 2016)

Stephen J. Card said:


> "The Golden Bear was not under Captain Pecota’s control at the time of the collision, said Bobby King, Cal Maritime’s spokesman. As happens when a ship prepares to dock, a local pilot boards the ship and guides it to port behind a tugboat."


In my days at sea it was 'Pilot's Advice/Master's Orders' the only place where a pilot had full control was the Panama Canal transit. No doubt things may have changed


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## Stephen J. Card (Nov 5, 2006)

Exactly.

Here a photo of the port. Vessel coming alongside will turn around and come alongside starboard side. Someone failed to top the gantry arm or someone gave the wrong height for the pilot. Poor planning.


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