Accident Closes Major Shipping Channel for Hours

A 669-foot tank ship carrying orange juice collided with a smaller dredging ship in Newark Bay, forcing the Coast Guard to close a waterway that leads to some of the largest shipping terminals on the East Coast for about five hours.

No one was injured in the collision, but the smaller ship, the 117-foot Dredge New York, took on water and started to sink before it was stabilized. The Coast Guard found sheen of light hydraulic fluid in the surrounding water, but investigators had not determined its source. The collision, Officer Rorison said, occurred about 1:50 p.m. near Port Newark, on the west side of a channel between Bayonne, N.J., and Newark. The freighter, Orange Sun, which was flying a Liberian flag, collided with the dredging vessel, and several hours later, tugboats escorted the ship to Berth 24 at Port Newark. The dredging vessel was linked to a barge and tugboat after water was removed from the ship. The dredging vessel was working on a $2.5 billion project to deepen New York Harbor and the surrounding channels to 50 feet, from 45 feet, to allow bigger container ships to dock in New York and New Jersey. Great Lakes Dredge and Dock Company, which is based in Chicago, owned the damaged vessel.
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