The MV George Prince ferry disaster was a nautical disaster that occurred in the Mississippi River in St. Charles Parish, Louisiana, United States, on the morning of October 20, 1976 (1976-10-20). The Luling–Destrehan Ferry George Prince was struck by the Norwegian tanker SS Frosta, which was traveling upriver. The collision occurred at mile post 120.8 above Head of Passes, less than three-quarters of a mile from the construction site of the Luling Bridge which would replace the ferry seven years later. The ferry was crossing from Destrehan, Louisiana on the East Bank to Luling, Louisiana on the West Bank. Ninety-six passengers and crew were aboard the ferry when it was struck, and seventy-eight perished. This accident is the deadliest ferry disaster in United States history. It is also the deadliest peacetime nautical disaster involving a non-submersible vessel in U.S. waters since the explosion of the SS Grandcamp in 1947, which killed 581 people.
Luling–Destrehan Ferry operations
The Luling–Destrehan Ferry was one of three routes then operated by the Louisiana Department of Highways, District 2. The others were the pedestrian Taft–Norco Ferry and the vehicle Edgard–Reserve Ferry.
The ferry operated with two boats, the Ollie K. Wilds and the George Prince. The George Prince was the larger of the two, and operated around the clock, while the smaller boat only worked at peak hours. During peak hours, the ferries did not operate on a fixed schedule.
The ferry landings are pontoons connected to a shell road by a small ramp, and are held in place by pilings in the river bottom. The ferries made a "figure-8" transit, always running upriver when departing, letting the current carry the boat downriver, then turning upriver to land on the opposite bank.
The East Bank ferry landing was situated upriver of two busy grain elevators, limiting the boats' ability to maneuver and, when ships were present, obscuring the boats' radar. Visibility was often limited by clouds of grain dust from transfer operations, although no transfer was taking place the morning of the accident.
The George Prince was a ferry owned and operated by the Louisiana Department of Highways, originally built in 1937 at Slidell, LA, and converted for its final use at Avondale, LA. In 1969, the U.S. Coast Guard ceased inspection and certification of the vessel at the request of the state of Louisiana. It was a free ferry and was not carrying passengers "for hire", so the Coast Guard complied with the request.
The George Prince was 120 feet (37 m) in length and 34 feet (10 m) in breadth, with a gross weight of 259 tons, and powered by a 670-horsepower (500 kW) diesel engine. She was equipped with two radar units (although only one was turned on at the time of the accident). Her crew of five consisted of a pilot, an engineer, and three deckhands.
The entire crew of the George Prince had duties while afloat; none of these duties were to serve as lookout. Had there been a designated lookout, there was no way for the lookout to communicate with the pilot except by hand signals.
The SS Frosta was a tanker ship, built in 1961 in Germany and owned by A/S Ludwig, of Bergen, Norway. The Frosta was 664 feet (202 m) in length, 90 feet (27 m) in breadth, with a gross weight of 22,850 tons, and powered by a steam turbine engine, rated at 16,800 hp (12.5 MW).
The Frosta departed empty from Rotterdam, the Netherlands on October 4, bound for Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The voyage was uneventful. At the Southwest Pass of the Mississippi River, on the night of October 19, the Frosta took aboard the first of three pilots to guide her up the river. The pilot at the time of the collision was Nicholas Colombo, a member of the New Orleans-Baton Rouge Steamship Pilots Association, and the third pilot aboard the ship for the journey upstream. Colombo directed the ship take a speed equivalent to 12 miles per hour (19 km/h) upstream, his preferred speed. The crew ordered a speed of "half ahead", which gave them a forward momentum of 11.4 mph (18.3 km/h), stemming a current of 1.1 mph (1.8 km/h).
When the ship was about a mile below the Luling–Destrehan ferry crossing, the pilot saw a ferry cross from the West Bank to the East Bank of the river. This was the MV Ollie K. Wilds, which worked the route along with the George Prince. At this time, the ship was on the west side of the channel, and was passing two ships moored to grain elevators on the East Bank of the river.
At about 6:00am on October 20, 1976, the George Prince was berthed at the East Bank landing, taking on vehicles. Her crew had been on duty all night and was due to get off duty at 7:00. She was facing upriver and took on a full load of vehicles, consisting of 20 cars, eight trucks, six motorcycles, and an unknown number of pedestrians. Of the passengers aboard, there is no accounting of people in vehicles versus pedestrians. About 20 people were crowded in a waiting room to avoid the pre-dawn chill.
Once loaded, the George Prince departed and made a short run upriver before turning to cross the river. She did not give any indication of her departure by radio or horn. When operating in tandem, the ferries operated by sight with each other. The George Prince proceeded across the river, never changing course nor acknowledging radio traffic.
According to the survivors, some of the passengers were aware of the Frosta as it traveled upriver, and there was a growing anxiety over what appeared to be a collision course, although this anxiety was somewhat tempered by their belief that the ferry would maneuver to avoid the ship, especially since there was no indication of danger from the George Prince. When the Frosta sounded the danger signal, there was an immediate panic from those who could see the ship, and their flight from danger alerted others. It can never be known whether the passengers on the side opposite the oncoming ship were aware of the danger, as all the survivors were on the side of the impact. When the ferry had nearly finished its voyage across the river, she was struck near the middle of the port side by the bow of the Frosta. The force of the collision drove the stem of the Frosta 8 feet (2.4 m) into the side, impaling the George Prince on the port side and pushing her sideways up the river. The starboard side of the George Prince was quickly submerged, and the vessel capsized almost immediately. After capsizing, the ferry was driven under the ship, where the bottoms of the vessels collided.
All the vehicles were thrown off of the deck except for a motorcycle, which was entangled in the railing. One vehicle floated briefly before filling with water and sinking; the rest sank immediately.
Less than two minutes had elapsed since departing the dock.
The circumstances of a collision in 1974 resembled those of the 1976 tragedy except that, in the earlier accident, there were no fatalities. The accident occurred just before dawn in good visibility; the ferry operator failed to see the upbound vessels, though they were seen by the passengers on the deck; and the ferry operator failed to make good use of his radios to check for river traffic. Following the investigation by the Coast Guard, an administrative law judge suspended the ferry operator's license for three months. That decision was affirmed by the Coast Guard Commandant and by the National Transportation Safety Board in a decision adopted six days after the 1976 tragedy.