An 85-foot tugboat that sank off a North Carolina beach last December was recently raised by a team from New Jersey-based Donjon Marine.

     The 250-dwt Captain Frank sank December 29 after a towing bitt on the aft deck was torn loose, allowing water to flood into the vessel's engine space, according to reports. Captain Frank, owned by North Bank Towing Co. of Louisiana, was towing a dredging barge for beach replenishment operations near Wilmington, N.C. The vessel was being operated by Bean Horizon Corp.

     Once the 3,000-hp engine was shut down by the flooding, the barge over-ran the tug, exacerbating the already desperate situation aboard and accelerating the sinking. The vessel's three crewmen were quickly rescued by a crewboat operating in the area. Captain Frank sank in 30 feet of water.

     When Donjon Marine was called in by the vessel's owner, a derrick barge capable of lifting 1,000 tons was mobilized from the company's base in Port Newark, N.J. and towed to the scene. Lifting slings fashioned from 2 ½-inch wire were positioned beneath the tug's hull after divers jet-washed away sand that had accumulated in the month since the tug sunk. Three-inch pennant wires were secured to the slings using shackles rated to 150 tons.

     The 200 x 100 foot barge Chesapeake 1000 lifted Captain Frank clear off the bottom, and workers dewatered the vessel with three-inch portable pumps to the point that there was 100 tons of strain on the derrick.

     "We towed Captain Frank in the slings for 70 miles back into Wilmington," said Eric King of Donion Marine. The derrick barge and tug were towed alternately by two 4,000-hp Moran tugs, Cape Cod and Cape Ann." We didn't lift it completely out of the water until we were along the dock in Wilmington."

     Once Captain Frank was lifted out of the water and hanging several feet over the dock, welders were able to affix patches to the hull in preparation for a tow back to the Gulf Coast. According to reports, the vessel will be completely rebuilt.

TugBoat Magazine
June/July 1998