The U.S. Coast Guard has rescued five people after the same American tug, the 31-metre Ocean Eagle, that ran aground on the B.C. coast just one year ago hit a reef in southeast Alaska.
The coast guard said in a news release that the five were hoisted Thursday by a Sikorsky Jayhawk helicopter from a barge attached to the tug and transported to Sitka. The tug began taking on water Wednesday night after running aground on the Mariposa Reef on the south side of Strait Island in Sumner Strait.
In March 2016, the Ocean Eagle, carrying a barge stacked with containers bound for Alaska, ran aground east of Rock Point in Johnstone Strait off northeastern Vancouver Island. The tug refloated itself, but the barge remained stuck in shallow water after smashing into the tug and a section of forested shoreline.
In yet another accident, the tug Nathan E. Stewart sank on the B.C. coast near Bella Coola last October. Officials said the tug was loaded with 226,840 litres of diesel fuel when it ran aground and that and nearly 25,000 litres were removed before the vessel settled under nine metres of water in Seaforth Channel.
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