Hillside, New Jersey, USA
September 14, 1999

While transiting to New York from Turkey, after dropping off the first of four ex-U.S. Navy frigates, Donjon Marine's 225' salvage tug POWHATAN altered her course and came to the rescue of the deadship M/V ANDRA which was adrift 250 miles off Bermuda.

The ANDRA, a 13,575 gross ton refrigerated cargo ship (567' LOA x 76' Breadth x 45' Molded Depth), was loaded with frozen chickens and transiting from the United States to Russia when it lost all electrical power during its transatlantic crossing. Fortunately for the ANDRA her sister ship, the M/V FRIO VLADIVOSTOK, was only 350 miles away and diverted its course to moor alongside the ANDRA in order to provide the electrical power needed to keep the refrigeration system operational during the tow to Hamilton, Bermuda.

On the afternoon of August 31st, the US flagged POWHATAN arrived at the distressed vessel and within just a few hours was hooked up and commenced the tow to Bermuda. On the following day, while enroute to the island nation, the sister ship came alongside and tied up to the ANDRA, which the POWHATAN towed in a side-by-side configurations for approximately 200 miles. Once outside of Hamilton Harbor, local island tugs took the ANDRA from the POWHATAN which subsequently went to a bunkering dock to top off with fuel for the voyage back to her home port of New York.

Presently, the POWHATAN is sailing to Charleston, SC to pick up the ex-USNS Navy frigate DUNCAN and tow it to the naval base in Golcuk, Turkey.