Harbor paid $21,000 to lift derelict tug that sank in snowstorm

Earlier this month, a derelict tug boat, the Bee, went down in Shoemaker Bay, and five other vessels almost did, after heavy snow loads and single-digit temperatures weighted down Wrangell.

The harbor department impounded the 60-foot Bee in September, Port Director Steve Miller said Friday. His staff had been checking it twice a day but "something broke on the boat that allowed some more water than our pumps could handle," he said.

The boat went down on Jan. 5 after heavy snowfall earlier this month.

It took $21,000 to recover the Bee, Miller said.

"We know who (the owner) is, but it will take litigation to do anything further because it was under our watch and, at that point, I don't know what we can go after them for, for the salvage price," Miller said.

Port and harbors staff were looking at trying to recover the Bee themselves, but the float bags alone were $6,500 apiece. Between paying a diver, and renting or buying equipment, Miller's department would have spent more than the $21,000 they ended up paying Ketchikan-based Alaska Commercial Divers to recover the sunken ship.

The recovery operation took a full day, Miller said. "It was brutal cold and the wind was blowing. We were out there freezing. Actually had three people (from port and harbors) out there. We were taking turns running for warmth. The divers weren't bothered nearly as bad. It probably would have been warmer in a dry suit," Miller said.

It took four inflatable float bags, each capable of lifting 20,000 pounds, to get the Bee off bottom so that it could be pulled to the beach, Miller wrote in a report to the borough assembly. "We were lucky as this vessel had no fuel or oils on board."

He declined to name the owners or the five vessels that almost went down amid the bad weather. It's a sensitive subject among boat owners, he said Friday.

Three days before the Bee sank, Miller and harbor employee Chris Smith on Jan. 2 had to pump one of the vessels moored next to the Ladonna Rae at Shoemaker Bay that was tipping precariously due to a problem with its "sea chest," a pipe between a ship's side and a valve in the hull for draining water.

That vessel and the others are fine and back to normal, Miller said, and the owners were charged $125 an hour for the port and harbors staff having to pump out the water from the at-risk vessels on their behalf.

"We're just glad we caught the other five that didn't go completely down. Every harbor department (in Southeast) has had exceptionally tough times" during the month's winter storms, Miller said.