Crews try to raise sunken tug at Norfolk Naval Station
 
BY CINDY CLAYTON
THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
MARCH 29,2002

NORFOLK — Crews worked to raise a tugboat that sank Thursday morning at Norfolk Naval Station.

The two men on board were not injured, and there was no damage to Navy property when the tug Norfolk sank at 4:30 a.m., near Pier 2 at the south end of the base, Navy officials said.

The tug, owned by Chesapeake-based Norfolk Dredging Co., was not hit, a company spokesman said. But what caused it to sink still wasn't known Thursday afternoon.

Precon Marine Divers attached wires to the tug and used cranes to raise it, the spokesman said. Fuel tanks aboard the tug were not damaged but a small slick was skimmed from the water's surface by Navy personnel, officials said.

The tug had been contracted for routine maintenance dredging, a Navy spokesman said.

A damage estimate wasn't available.

Late last month, another tug from the same company sank, killing four of the tug's crew, after it collided with a cargo ship in the Elk River near Chesapeake City, Md.

The tug Swift was part of a caravan moving dredging 'equipment to Baltimore through thick fog when it collided with a 550-foot cargo ship that was trying to pass. The Swift's captain, William "Bo" Bryant of Norfolk, his nephew, Justin Bryant, and crew members Ronald Bonniville and Clarence McConnell were killed.

• Reach Cindy Clayton at cclayton@pilotonline.com or 446-2540.