Bow Mariner Investigation Completed

The investigation of the Feb. 28, 2004 sinking of a chemical tank ship off the coast of Virginia has been completed. A press conference is scheduled for Tuesday January 3, 2006, at 10 a.m. to be held at Coast Guard Sector Hampton Roads at 200 Granby Street, in Norfolk. The speaker will be Capt. Robert O' Brien, Captain of the Port of Hampton Roads. He will be accompanied by Jerry Crooks, Chief of Investigations at Sector Hampton Roads. The Bow Mariner, a 570-foot, 40,000-ton tanker exploded with 27 people aboard. It was carrying 3.2 million gallons of industrial-grade ethanol, plus 200,000 gallons of No. 6 fuel oil and 53,000 gallons of diesel oil. The Bow Mariner, built in 1982 in Yugoslavia, was owned by Odfjell ASA of Norway, which owns or charters 96 other tanker ships around the world. A portion of the fleet, including the Bow Mariner, was operated by Ceres Hellenic Ship Enterprises of Piraeus, Greece, which employs about 3,000 crew members for those and other tankers, oil carriers, bulk containers and liquid-natural-gas carriers. Only six crewmen survived the blast 50 miles off the coast of Chincoteague,Va. The bodies of 18 crewmen were never recovered. The official report will also be posted at http://www.uscg.mil/hq/g-m/moa/reportindexcas2.htm