Olympia Sauna Compania Naviera, S.A. v. United States

604 F. Supp. 1297, 1984 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 23724
CourtDistrict Court, D. Oregon
DecidedSeptember 11, 1984
DocketCiv. 80-699LE
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 604 F. Supp. 1297 (Olympia Sauna Compania Naviera, S.A. v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Oregon primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Olympia Sauna Compania Naviera, S.A. v. United States, 604 F. Supp. 1297, 1984 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 23724 (D. Or. 1984).

Opinion

OPINION and ORDER

LEAVY, District Judge:

The Ypatia Haleoussi was being piloted by a local river pilot in March 1980 when she turned onto Warrior Rock Reef, in the Columbia River. Her owner, the plaintiff Olympia Sauna Compañía Naviera (Olympia), a Panamanian corporation, claims that the United States Coast Guard negligently mispositioned a buoy that marks the reef. Olympia contends that the mispositioned buoy was the sole cause of the vessel’s grounding. Olympia claims entitlement to damages under the Suits in Admiralty Act. 46 U.S.C. §§ 741-752.

The defendant, the United States, denies that Warrior Rock Reef Lighted Buoy No. 4 (Buoy No. 4) was mispositioned. The United States contends, rather, that the vessel and her pilot were negligent. The United States also contends that jurisdiction must be exercised only under the Public Vessels Act, 46 U.S.C. §§ 781-790.

The case was tried tb the court on the question of which jurisdictional statute applies, and on the issue of liability.

I. Factual Background

From March 5th until the evening of March 8, 1980, the Ypatia Haleoussi docked at a grain elevator in Kalama, Washington. On March 8th, after receiving 43,000 tons of grain, the vessel’s crew readied her to travel up the Columbia to Swan Island.

To reach Swan Island, the Ypatia Halcoussi would have to travel around Warrior Rock and through Warrior Rock Range, 1 in a restricted waterway with a navigable channel 600 feet wide and 40 feet deep (at zero tide). The area is a difficult one in which to navigate deep-draft vessels; use of local river pilots is provided for by statute. 2

Shortly after returning from two weeks off duty, Kenneth Fletcher, a licensed Columbia River Pilot, was dispatched to pilot the Ypatia Haleoussi on March 8, 1980. Fletcher had traveled the Columbia thousands of times. He had piloted vessels on the Columbia approximately 800 times before March 8, 1980; approximately 200 of those trips were upbound through Warrior Rock Range in the evening. Fletcher had *1299 piloted vessels similar to the Ypatia Halcoussi, which is a steel-hulled stern-ender 830 feet long, with a 160-feet beam, and displacing 85,000 tons.

Once on board, Fletcher spoke with the master, Captain Ioakim Sarelis, who informed Fletcher about vessel procedures. Fletcher ascertained that the vessel had operable radar and radio. He also determined, after piloting the vessel away from the dock without difficulty, that the gyro-compass had a two-degree easterly error. The vessel’s draft readings at departure were reported to Fletcher as 30 feet 10 inches forward, 34 feet 10 inches aft.

As the vessel left Kalama and proceeded upriver, Fletcher did not consult navigational charts. Rather, he relied on his eyesight and the knowledge he had accumulated during years of piloting in the area. Visibility was unlimited for fifteen miles.

Captain Sarelis, the quartermaster, and the mate were on the bridge with Fletcher while he piloted. As the Ypatia Halcoussi approached St. Helens junction, Fletcher announced her position by radio. An outbound tug towing logs, the Cleo Brusco, responded that it was at Henrici Landing. Soon afterward, Fletcher could see the tug near Bachelor Island on the Washington side of the river.

Fletcher, conscious that the tug probably intended to cross the river, ordered the quartermaster to put the Ypatia Halcoussi on a 185-degree course. As was customary for river pilots facing an oncoming tug in the area, Fletcher piloted the vessel to the starboard (right) side of the channel to give the tug the most space possible. When the Ypatia Halcoussi passed Light No. 2, Fletcher watched Buoy No. 4, in relation to Light 4A, to determine when the vessel could safely turn and circumvent Warrior Rock Reef. Light 4A is upriver from Buoy No. 4. It is customary for Columbia River Pilots to use Light 4A and Buoy No. 4 to form a line of position, 3 which the pilots wait to cross before beginning the turn.

Fletcher ordered a two-stage turn; he first ordered a rudder change of 10 degrees starboard and a course of 190 degrees; almost immediately afterward, he ordered another 10-degree starboard rudder and a course of 200 degrees. Fletcher stepped to the vessel’s port (left) side and viewed the Warrior Rock Range lights 4 to the rear. Shortly thereafter, the vessel struck Warri- or Rock Reef, upriver from Buoy No. 4.

Buoy No. 4, first established in 1929, is within a national system of aids to navigation for which the United States Coast Guard is responsible. The Coast Guard provides and maintains aids that serve the needs of commercial navigators. 5 The Coast Guard is comprised of a Commandant and Headquarters in Washington D.C., two Area Offices, and various District Offices which operate in specific geographical areas of the country. Each District Office supervises both floating and shore units. 6 Washington and Oregon aids to navigation are maintained by the Thirteenth District Office (the District Office) in Seattle, Washington. 7

The Coast Guard maintains a national buoyage system to warn mariners of dangers and to show channel directions. Buoys indicate — by their colors, shapes, *1300 numbers, and light characteristics — on which side they should be passed by vessels moving in a given direction. Buoy No. 4 is a red flashing buoy; red indicates a wreck or obstruction to be passed by keeping the buoy to starboard. Buoys generally do not maintain exact positions and are thereby distinguishable from fixed navigational marks. 8

In 1979 and 1980, under the supervision of the District Office, the Coast Guard Cutter Whitebush serviced and positioned Buoy No. 4. The Whitebush is a 333-foot Coast Guard buoy tender with responsibility for floating aids to navigation in a geographic area encompassing the Columbia River, the Washington coast, and the Oregon coast down to Coos Bay. On March 5th and 6th in 1980, the Whitebush crew used positioning methodology that was initiated in the district in mid-1979. At the direction of the District Office and pursuant to the adoption of a positioning project designed to improve the accuracy of aid positioning, the crew used sextants to take angles. The District Office supplied the buoy tender personnel with recommended objects from which to take angles, and computer grids on which the angles were to be recorded. The position of the vessel was derived from the intersection of the angles.

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Bluebook (online)
604 F. Supp. 1297, 1984 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 23724, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/olympia-sauna-compania-naviera-sa-v-united-states-ord-1984.