Master of DRD Towing vessel left his post to go out of state during collision

When 41-year-old John Paul Bavaret II pled guilty Jan. 19 to a felony violation for his role in a 2008 Mississippi River oil spill near New Orleans, it turns out he had been substituting for the tow boat’s master, Terry Carver.

The problem was, Bavaret’s apprentice-mate license did not allow him to pilot the Mel Oliver. Carver, who was supposed to be on duty, was actually in Illinois chasing after his girlfriend who had been spotted with another man.

Carver had asked Bavaret to fill in so that he could run an errand. Carver compounded the situation by telling the port captain that he needed time off in order to retrieve a television set from his ex-wife.

After the Mel Oliver and its barge collided with a tanker ship that caused 283,000 gallons of fuel to spill into the river, Carver called the port captain and said, “I’m fired.”

The preceding account was provided in recent court testimony by parties involved in the accident.

The admission of DRD Towing Company LLC of Harvey, Louisiana for using apprentice mates without the presence of a licensed master on their towboats such as the Mel Oliver makes you wonder just how widespread this practice is among tug operators.

The Ruby E, another DRD tugboat, was involved in a separate incident that same year which resulted in its sinking. Like the Mel Oliver, it was piloted by a crewmember with an apprentice mate’s license.

In Coast Guard hearings in 2009, DRD employees testified that the company frequently let lower-level crew to stand in for higher ranking crew.

Source: New Orleans Times-Picayune