Tanker rams Ambrose Light outside New York harbor

Tanker rams Ambrose Light outside New York harbor A light platform at the entrance to New York harbor has been hit again — the third time it has happened in a dozen years.
   The U.S. Coast Guard said the Axel Spirit, operated by the Teekay Shipping Co. and flagged in Nassau, Bahamas, was en route to the Chevron facility in Perth Amboy, N.J., when it struck Ambrose Light at around 2 a.m. Saturday.
   The light is a 76-foot structure that sits about 12 miles southeast of Staten Island, N.Y., and watches over the main shipping lanes to New York Harbor.
   It is located about 4.5 miles outside the shipping channel. The structure reportedly suffered substantial damage to its legs, stanchion and the revolving light is bent and no longer rotating.
   The Coast Guard Sector New York issued a Safety Marine Information Broadcast (SMIB) at 1:45 p.m. alerting mariners in the area of the damaged structure and damaged navigation light.
   The Axel Spirit’s shipping agent reported the incident to Coast Guard Sector New York at 8:50 a.m. Saturday and the Coast Guard said it did not yet know the extent of damage to the Axel Spirit. There have been no reported injuries or pollution.
   The Coast Guard was asking mariners to stay clear of the tower, if possible, for their own safety and the safety of others on the water.”
   The Coast Guard Cutter Willow has been directed to affix a temporary aids to navigation until permanent repairs can be made to the Ambrose Light.
   The weather at the time of the incident was reported at 20-25 knot winds and four- to five-foot seas.
   The current light platform is a replacement for a tower that operated from 1967 until 1996 when it was damaged beyond repair by a collision with the oil tanker Aegeo. That platform had been manned for much of its life, but automated in 1988. The current platform does not have crew.
   The current platform has also been damaged previously by a ship. In January 2001, the freighter Kouros V struck the new tower.
   Prior to the light platforms, lightships marked the entrance to the harbor, some as far back as 1923.
   Several had the name Lightship Ambrose, and one is located today at the South Street Seaport in lower Manhattan.
   In 1960, one of those ships was undergoing maintenance when a freighter struck the relief lightship that was at its station. The ship sank, but the nine crewmen survived. ' Chris Dupin