Coast Guard helicopters rescued all seven crew from a disabled tug boat about 30 miles off Ocean City, Maryland, early Saturday morning, after its lines snapped and got tangled in both props.
About 3:30 a.m. on Saturday, a crew from the 103-foot-long tug Legacy called the Coast Guard, saying the tug was disabled and the crew was preparing to abandon ship. The Legacy had been towing a 290-foot foot barge from New Jersey to Guyana, when a 1,000-foot-long line snapped and got tangled in its starboard prop. The tug continued underway, running on one engine, until another tow line snapped and got tangled in its port prop.
The tug had no power and was drifting.
The Coast Guard Cutter Lawrence Lawson, from Cape May, New Jersey, was already underway and was diverted to the tug. But when it got there it realized it couldn’t help because of the weather and worries that its own props could get tangled in the lines still in the water.
Meanwhile, Coast Guard helicopters from New Jersey and North Carolina arrived and airlifted all seven crew off the stricken tug. It took them to the Ocean City airport; no one was injured.
The Coast Guard is monitoring the location of the floating tug and barge. The crew had activated its EPIRB before they left the ship, and the Coast Guard deployed a data market buoy. A commercial salvage operator is working to retrieve the barge and tug. Read more:
