Dredge hit by juice ship suffered “extensive damage”
Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corp., whose dredge New York was struck by an orange juice tanker in the Newark Bay last week, will be towed to a Brooklyn shipyard to repair what the company said is “extensive damage.”The hydraulic backhoe dredge, which the company said is the “biggest and most powerful vessel of its kind in the world” sustained a large rupture in its port side after being struck by the tanker Orange Sun, Great Lakes said. The accident occurred at about 2 p.m. in the approach channel to Port Newark.
The Coast Guard said the Orange Sun is owned by Arctic Reefer Corp. in Monrovia, Liberia, and operated by Atlanship Switzerland.
The tanker was outbound at the time of the incident. After the collision, the tanker was escorted to the Southern Bay Ridge anchorage in New York Harbor. The Coast Guard required a classification society to verify that the vessel is fit for route and service as well as to provide a dive survey assessing any damage that might have been done to the vessel.
At the time of the accident, Great Lakes said visibility was more than one mile, the weather was sunny, and that a local pilot was on board the ship with a local tug on its port side.
The dredging company said once a permanent patch is made in the port side hold, the dredge will be towed to Brooklyn. Repairs are expected to commence immediately. Great Lakes said it is unknown at this point how long the New York will be out of service, and said “the degree of the impact on the financial results of Great Lakes can not be assessed at this time.”
