A freighter that ran aground on a protected coral reef was refloated, and the Coast Guard filed charges against the vessel's master and its mate, who failed two breath alcohol tests given five hours after the wreck.
The mate told the Coast Guard he started drinking only after the ship ran aground.None of the vessel's 6,000 to 8,000 gallons of diesel fuel leaked, but a few gallons of residue oil from a flooded ballast tank seeped into the water, the Coast Guard said.
A commercial tug freed the 155-foot Alec Owen Maitland from the reef in the Key Largo National Marine Sanctuary on Thursday afternoon with the help of an incoming tide. The ship had been stuck 27 hours.
The ship was returning to Miami for repairs Thursday evening.
Charges were filed against the captain, Duane Goodwin, 37, and mate Michael Anthony Bishop, 43, said Coast Guard investigator Lt. Keith Ward.
Bishop, at the helm during the accident, was charged with negligence for running the vessel aground, not maintaining a proper fix of his position and operating the vessel without proper license, Ward said.
Goodwin was charged with allowing an improperly licensed person to operate the vessel, which ran aground Wednesday afternoon about five miles off Key Largo at a popular diving spot.
The ship had been en route from Miami to Mobile, Ala., to pick up a cargo of heavy equipment. The Alec Owen Maitland is owned by Maitland Bros. Co. of Littlestown, Pa.
Preliminary findings by Coast Guard investigators indicated that Goodwin, the only person aboard licensed to navigate, was asleep when the ship ran aground, and that Bishop was piloting the vessel.
Bishop failed two breath alcohol tests administered by the Monroe County Sheriff's Department five hours after the accident, registering blood-alcohol levels of 0.10 and 0.11, Ward said.
The vessel's hull was gashed on the reef, and the forward ballast tank took on about 5 feet of water. Gov. Bob Martinez, who went snorkeling Thursday at the scene to check damage to the reef, said the ship's propeller and rudder were resting on the bottom.