MARINE ACCIDENT REPORT: U.S. TANKSHIP S/S TEXACO NORTH DAKOTA AND ARTIFICIAL ISLAND EI-361-A, COLLISION AND FIRE, GULF OF MEXICO, AUGUST 21, 1980

About 0430, on August 21, 1980, the United States tankship SS TEXACO NORTH DAKOTA collided with Eugene Island 361-A, a partially constructed artificial island used in oil production operations, located in the Gulf of Mexico, about 100 nautical miles south of Morgan City, Louisiana. The TEXACO NORTH DAKOTA was partially loaded with several petroleum products, one of which was unblended gasoline. The vessel struck the island head on and the vessel's forward cargo tanks were ruptured, resulting in a fire that destroyed the forward part of the cargo tank area and the midships house. The fire burned for several days before it was extinguished by a professional firefighting team. The crew abandoned the vessel without any loss of life. The salvaged vessel was later surveyed and declared a total loss. The National Transportation Safety Board determines that the probable causes of the accident were the failure of the system which provided information about the location of hazards to navigation to provide timely notice of the location of the offshore structure that was struck by the vessel, and the failure of the master of the TEXACO NORTH DAKOTA to acquaint himself with the latest marine information before navigating his vessel near offshore structures on the outer continental shelf. Contributing to the accident was the failure of the marine construction company to maintain the aids to navigation on the offshore structure.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • Report
• Corporate Authors:

  National Transportation Safety Board

  490 L'Enfant Plaza, SW
  Washington, DC  United States  20594
• Publication Date: 1981-4-7

Media Info

• Pagination: 32 p.

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Crash investigation; Marine safety; Reports; Tankers; Water transportation crashes
• Identifier Terms: Texaco North Dakota (Ship)
• Uncontrolled Terms: Ship fires
• Geographic Terms: Gulf of Mexico
• Subject Areas: Marine Transportation; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00649536
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: Maritime Technical Information Facility
• Report/Paper Numbers: NTSB-MAR-81-04
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Jul 21 1994 12:00AM