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Maritime Accident News

Portland Maine fire captain suspended after boat accident on “training exercise”

Posted on Oct 22, 2011

Was the Portland, Maine fire boat being used on a legitimate training exercise or for a pleasure cruise when it struck an underwater object outside the shipping channel Oct. 15?

The fire captain and a firefighter for the city have been suspended without pay following the accident that caused $38,000 of damages to the city's fire boat.

The City of Portland IV boat is worth $3.2 million. The impact sheared off a propeller shaft and damaged a propeller and the rudder. The boat used its second undamaged propeller to make it safely back to Portland without assistance. The accident occurred on the north side of Fort Gorges, said a preliminary Coast Guard investigation report.

Firefighter Joseph Murphy, who piloted the boat, was suspended for 10 days and Capt. Christopher Goodall was suspended for 3 days for the accident

The accident could have been avoided, said city officials conducting an investigation. The area is well known as a place to be avoided because of its rocky features, said former yacht captain Alan Graves.

"It's a bony place where you do not go," he said.

Murphy and Goodall failed to comply with Coast Guard navigation rules of the road, according to a statement from the city.

The excursion was officially called a "training exercise," reports the Press Herald. But if that's so, then why were 12 civilians, including family members, on board?

Chief Fred LaMontagne admitted the boat is sometimes used to transport city workers to islands and dignitaries to official city events.

The city's claim that the trip in question was a training exercise doesn't hold up with the 12 civilians on board, said Mark Usinger, operator of A.L. Griffin Ship Chandlers.

"I personally have witnessed wives, girlfriends and children on the fireboat and they go on weekend jaunts," he said.

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