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UPDATE: Coast Guard Still Working to Raise Tug

 

The tug Dauntless is still sitting on the lake bed in Egg Harbor after the first effort to raise it failed.

 

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United States Coast Guard personnel worked throughout the week of Jan. 4 with McMullen and Pitz Marine Contractors to raise the tug Dauntless from the waters near the Egg Harbor marina. The tug sank Saturday night in about 12 feet of water.

 

 

The first plan to raise the tug on Monday with two cranes didn’t work because the tug weighed more than anticipated. Water was leaking into the tug faster than divers could pump it out. Salvage plans in these types of instances must be approved by Coast Guard officials in Washington D.C. before raising the vessel.

 

 

Lt. Jerry Butwid, Assistant Supervisor at the Marine Safety Detachment in Sturgeon Bay, said the fuel inside the vessel was contained and there was “no reason to believe any fuel will leak out.” Divers capped the vents on the fuel tanks late Sunday. It’s estimated the vessel had about 600 gallons of diesel fuel in its tanks when it sank.

 

 

Butwid said Tuesday that the Coast Guard’s primary concern was protecting the environment and the safety of divers and those working to raise the tug. The Coast Guard surrounded the vessel with a containment boom and a sorbent boom shortly after arriving on the scene Sunday evening. The sorbent boom is a clothe-like boom that would absorb any fuel if it leaked.

 

 

McMullen and Pitz Marine Contractors is a subcontractor from Manitowoc hired by Luhr Bros. to construct the bin wall on the Egg Harbor marina reconstruction project. The company owns the 52-foot Dauntless, which was built in 1964.

 

 

It was not immediately known what caused the tug Dauntless to sink, and Andrew Wight, a Marine Safety Technician First Class stationed with the Coast Guard’s Marine Safety Attachment in Sturgeon Bay, said they won’t be able to determine a cause until the tug is resurfaced.

 

 

Ted Jennejohn, project manager for McMullen and Pitz, said the tug is probably damaged beyond repair.

 

 

“The tug’s probably going to be a loss,” Jennejohn said. “We’re just focusing on preventing any environmental damage.”

 

 

Jennejohn said the Dauntless was inspected last spring at Burger Boats in Manitowoc, when the hull was rebuilt. He called the sinking “kind of mind-boggling.”

 

 

McMullen and Pitz had already completed their work at the marina and hoped to get their equipment out of the harbor this week when weather and ice conditions improved.