Report Keys on Alaska Ship Navigator

[December 22, 2007]  JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) -- A small cruise ship that ran aground last spring did so under the watch of a 22-year-old navigator fresh out of a maritime academy with no formal knowledge of Alaska waters, according to federal investigators.

The National Transportation Safety Board released a preliminary report Friday on the May 14 accident involving the riverboat-style Empress of the North about 25 miles southwest of Juneau. The ship, which was on the second day of a seven-day cruise, hit the submerged portion of a charted rock, then drifted a few miles from the shoal.

The grounding forced the evacuation of 206 passengers, ripped several holes in the ship's hull and damaged one of the propellers used in steering the ship.

One the ship's new employees took over as navigator about 36 hours after embarking on his first voyage with the ship owned by Seattle-based Majestic America Line, the NTSB report said.

Marino Cattiotti was assigned a four-hour watch to run through 4 a.m. because another navigator was ill, the report said. Cattiotti told investigators he was not familiar with the ship's route, had received no training on that cruise ship nor had he participated in any drills aboard the ship.

Investigators also interviewed six of Cattiotti's instructors at the California Maritime Academy, where the crew member earned a bachelor's degree in marine transportation.

The report said the instructors "believe that, in general, placing a recent graduate of the school with no watch experience outside of a training environment, on watch, at night, in pilotage waters, in an unfamiliar vessel, without any additional preparation and/or supervision, was imprudent."

The report contained no conclusions. A final report could take another six to eight months, an NTSB spokesman said.

Tom Batchelor, the navigator's attorney, said he has not seen the report and declined to comment.

A company spokeswoman said Majestic America Line could not comment because the investigation remains open.

[Associated Press; By STEVE QUINN]

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