{"id":170871,"date":"2018-03-15T16:16:50","date_gmt":"2018-03-15T20:16:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/noaacoastsurvey.wordpress.com\/?p=170871"},"modified":"2026-01-02T20:40:04","modified_gmt":"2026-01-02T20:40:04","slug":"noaa-navigation-response-team-locates-sunken-vessel-before-noreaster-strikes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nauticalcharts.noaa.gov\/updates\/noaa-navigation-response-team-locates-sunken-vessel-before-noreaster-strikes\/","title":{"rendered":"NOAA navigation response team locates sunken vessel before nor\u2019easter strikes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

On March 12, 2018, NOAA Coast Survey\u2019s navigation response team<\/a> 5 (NRT5) located the T\/V Captain Mackintire<\/em>, an 80-foot towing vessel that sank off the coast of Kennebunkport, Maine. The U.S. Coast Guard requested assistance finding the vessel, citing concerns of environmental hazards due to an unknown amount of fuel remaining onboard.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n


While being transferred from Maine to New York by the smaller tug, Helen Louise,<\/i> Mackintire<\/i>‘s seaworthiness became questionable. The crew aboard the Helen Louise<\/em> contacted USCG Sector Northern New England<\/a> for support. The USCGC Reef Shark<\/i> patrol boat assumed towing responsibility of Mackintire <\/i>and around 2 a.m. on February 22, the Reef Shark<\/i> cut the towing line as Mackintire<\/i> sank.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Tug Mackintire in front, with Helen Louise in the background towing. (USCG Sector Northern New England)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n


As soon as NRT5 received the USCG request to locate the Mackintire<\/em>, the team\u2014Lt. j.g. Dylan Kosten, Michael Bloom, and Eli Smith\u2014departed from their homeport of New London, Connecticut, for Kennebunkport. <\/span>
Surveying in a small vessel in Maine during March is highly restricted by cycles of low pressure, known as nor\u2019easters, which in some cases create 100 mile per hour winds, coastal flooding, and blizzard conditions. Recognizing a narrow window of opportunity before the next storm hit, NRT5 amended their existing plan\u2014to begin survey post nor\u2019easter\u2014and instead launched immediately upon arrival. Accompanied by Lara Herrmann, USCG, the team headed offshore to begin their search. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Multibeam
Multibeam imagery of the T\/V Captain Mackintire (NOAA)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Within 15 minutes of initiating survey operations at the location provided by the USCG, the team found the tug using multibeam sonar<\/a> imagery. Upon inspection, they determined the vessel is laying on its starboard side in 45 meters of water, 300 meters to the southwest of its last known position. With survey operations completed, the team opted to remain in Kennebunkport to weather the storm before returning to New London.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On March 12, 2018, NOAA Coast Survey\u2019s navigation response team 5 (NRT5) located the T\/V Captain Mackintire, an 80-foot towing vessel that sank off the coast of Kennebunkport, Maine. The U.S. Coast Guard requested assistance finding the vessel, citing concerns of environmental hazards due to an unknown amount of fuel remaining onboard.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":170868,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,5,10,11,47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-170871","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bathymetry","category-emergency-response","category-nautical-charts","category-navigation-response-teams","category-rapid-maritime-response"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nauticalcharts.noaa.gov\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170871","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nauticalcharts.noaa.gov\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nauticalcharts.noaa.gov\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nauticalcharts.noaa.gov\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nauticalcharts.noaa.gov\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=170871"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/nauticalcharts.noaa.gov\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170871\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":185398,"href":"https:\/\/nauticalcharts.noaa.gov\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170871\/revisions\/185398"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nauticalcharts.noaa.gov\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/170868"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nauticalcharts.noaa.gov\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=170871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nauticalcharts.noaa.gov\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=170871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nauticalcharts.noaa.gov\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=170871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}