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Maritime Accident News

Diver Injured While Cleaning Fishing Boat

Posted on Feb 17, 2009

A Gloucester diver was seriously injured while cleaning the propeller of a fishing boat at Gloucester’s Harbor Loop early February. He was consequently hospitalized in intensive care at Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

Diver Ted Barnes, 48, the owner of Gloucester-based Freedom Diving Corp., was working underneath Geordie King’s gillnetter Ocean Pride III at a Harbor Loop pier when the incident occurred shortly after 3:00 PM. King was unaware that Barnes had been cleaning under the boat and started the engine without putting the vessel in gear. According to King, the propeller turns slowly when the engine is started and he believes that is what caused Barnes’ injuries.

Barnes had been hired to clean the boat and had last spoken to King four hours before the accident. "Normally, you want make sure there's nobody down there, but we didn't see him, and he didn't let us know," King said.

Glen Durgin, who was working on the Maine-based Ocean Pride III at the time of the accident, saw Barnes unconscious in the water after the boat was running. Durgin pulled Barnes above water while King called for help. According to King, Barnes was still wearing his diving gear.

King said that Barnes regained consciousness and started to yell and scream before a U.S. Coast Guard crew arrived to ferry the injured diver to the Coast Guard station. Barnes was treated at the scene for apparent head injuries and was airlifted to Brigham and Women’s Hospital by helicopter.

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration dive program manager Dave Dinsmore said that according to OSHA regulations, commercial divers are required to have both a stand-by diver, ready to jump in if there's an emergency, as well as a designated person in charge topside. Dinsmore also said that the diver is required to be tethered to the boat if he or she is in the water alone.