Hairline crack found in deck of tanker

A tanker transporting North Slope crude oil was detained in Prince William Sound after a crewman discovered a small crack in the deck, Coast Guard officials said.

The 894-foot Overseas Chicago was making the final voyage of its career when a crewman doing a routine deck inspection found an oil stain March 25. The ship can carry 600,000 barrels of oil.

The crack is about an inch and three-quarters long, said Anil Mathur, president of Alaska Tanker Co., a Beaverton, Ore., shipping company that hauls oil for BP.

Deck cracks are unusual. Mathur said he remembers only one other occurrence within his fleet since August 2001. As a precaution, the ship and its escort tugs diverted to the area of Knowles Head in Prince William Sound and dropped anchor pending an inspection, Mathur said.

The company’s marine architect — in consultation with the American Bureau of Shipping, an organization that regulates vessels on behalf of the Coast Guard — has determined that the Overseas Chicago is in no danger or breaking up or sinking, Mathur said. A bureau inspector was expected to visit the ship March 27 and the crack was to be repaired, then the tanker likely will proceed to a West Coast refinery, according to Mathur. The company isn’t required to report such cracks to authorities but Alaska Tanker did anyway as a matter of company policy, he said.

Coast Guard Lt. Latarsha McQueen said the company notified the Coast Guard the afternoon of March 25 of the crack near one of the ship’s cargo holds.

The double-bottomed tanker, built in 1977, was already scheduled for retirement after this voyage, Mathur said.

Alaska Tanker is in the process of replacing all its ships with new, double-hulled tankers.

—The Associated Press