Stricken US ship pilot 'novice'

The navigator of a cruise ship that ran aground off Alaska was only 22, had no real knowledge of the area and no training on the boat.

Marino Cattiotti was put in charge for four hours because another navigator was ill, the National Transportation Safety Board report said. More than 200 people were evacuated when the Empress of the North hit a rock 25 miles (40km) from Juneau. It was his first voyage on the ship. The report said instructors believed that "placing a recent graduate of the school with no watch experience outside of a training environment, on watch, at night, in pilotage waters, in an unfamiliar vessel, without any additional preparation and/or supervision, was imprudent". The riverboat-style boat was on the second day of a seven-day cruise when it suffered the accident. The ship's hull was ripped in a number of places and the propeller damaged.
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