Drunken Mutiny by Russian Crew on


Chesapeake Halted by Calvert Cops


and Coast Guard

Bay pilots sent SOS for help, to remove them from ship


 
Pirate Buster:  Calvert Sheriff Mike Evans sent a posse of deputies out to rope in 14 drunken sailors who were committing a drunken mutiny against the captain of a ship on the Chesapeake Bay. ST. MARY'S TODAY photo
At right is one of three craft that the Coast Guard sent to the aid of the captain of the Ocean Victory, along with a helicopter.   This is the Coast Guard Cutter Shearwater, seen at a visit last year to Annapolis.  Coast Guard photo


 --- Calvert Sheriff's Posse Boards Ship; Detains 14 Drunk Sailors at Request of Coast Guard

--- Mutiny took place near danger zone of Nuke and LNG plants

 
The MV Ocean Victory held at no-sail status by the Coast Guard pending the outcome of their investigation into Monday's melee.
Photos courtesy of NBC 4 News, Washington, D.C.

By Kenneth C. Rossignol
ST. MARY'S TODAY

SOLOMON'S ISLAND (March 13, 2008) ---  Calvert Sheriff Mike Evans told ST. MARY'S TODAY that his officers were asked by the United States Coast Guard to assist them with an incident on a ship which was located in the Chesapeake Bay at the mouth of the Patuxent River.
"The ship was about 300 or 400 feet long and the crew was drunk and fighting the captain and he called the Coast Guard for help and we responded to their request for assistance and we went out there and detained 14 people," said Sheriff Evans, who said they were detained onboard the vessel in handcuffs.
"We have two boats of our own and went out to help the Coast Guard," Sheriff Evans told ST. MARY'S TODAY. "We put all of the crew into flex-cuffs and handcuffs and searched the ship to make sure there wasn't anyone else hiding.  They were all drunk and they all spoke Russian and since we have a deputy who speaks Russian he was brought out to translate."
Evans said that his agency keeps their boats at Calvert Marina and they used them to get to the freighter.
"The whole crew was involved and we detained them all," said Sheriff Evans.
Coast Guard spokesman Petty Officer John Edwards of the Baltimore Coast Guard office said that the vessel Ocean Victory, a 328' dry bulk ship was at the mouth of the Patuxent River when the bay pilots on the ship called the Coast Guard for help and to remove them from the ship.
Since the bay pilots are required to be on the ship when it is operating on the Chesapeake, the ship was ordered to be put at anchor by the Captain of the Port of Baltimore, Capt. Brian Kelley, at the time of the incident on Monday, March 10th. 
According to Petty Officer Edwards, the Ocean Victory is still anchored awaiting the outcome of a Coast Guard investigation. 
"The bay pilots were concerned for their own safety and asked to be removed," said P. O. Edwards who could not confirm further details of the nature of the incident due to it still being 'under investigation'.
Edwards said that the Coast Guard responded to the incident with the 87' cutter Shearwater, which has as its home port, Portsmouth, Va., a HH-80 helicopter from Coast Guard Station Elizabeth City, N.C., a 25' boat from Coast Guard Station St. Inigoes, Md., and a a 27' foot boat from Coast Guard Station Oxford, on the Eastern Shore of Maryland.
Edwards said that the Calvert Sheriff's Department was requested to maintain order and while the 14 crew members were 'detained' they were not removed and hauled off to jail on shore.
Chesapeake Bay Pilots are boarded onto freighters and tankers when they leave the Port of Baltimore or enter the Chesapeake Bay from the Atlantic in order to insure that the vessels transit the bay in the shipping channel and do not run aground.
The search of the ship didn't reveal any drugs or contraband, said Sheriff Evans.
The location of the mutiny at the mouth of the Patuxent River is close to the danger zone of the Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant and the Cove Point LNG gas terminal where large ships bring in huge cargoes of LNG gas.

A crewman stands with his hands in his pockets as the News 4 helicopter flew over the Motor Vessel Ocean Victory as it sat at anchor today.  The vessel is under a 'no sail' order pending the outcome of an investigation into the Monday incident.
Photos courtesy of NBC 4 News, Washington, D.C.


The Ocean Victory is flagged in Malta.