Criminalization of the Conduct of the Commercial Mariner -
Continued from Perils of the Sea - Important Reading
The maritime industry is a rough place to work. The maritime
professional must be knowledgeable in so many areas, from
navigation to seamanship to engineering. He or she must at times
be officer, scholar, leader, or follower. The maritime professional
also works in a world that has become increasingly regulated,
much more so today than two or three decades ago. One of the
prices the mariner pays for this is to face criminal liability for things
that in the past may have been treated as negligence, where only
monetary fines would have been imposed. If something goes
wrong on a watch, resulting in a collision, oil spill, injury, death, or
other casualty occurs, the maritime professional is vulnerable to
being prosecuted under criminal laws. In such situations, the
conduct of a mariner could be examined from the standpoint of
criminal penal codes. Such penal codes distinguish whether
someone acts intentionally, knowingly, recklessly, or with gross
negligence. The mariner who acts intentionally will bear the
greatest blame from the legal system. Read about criminal
prosecution of a chief engineer on a car-carrying vessel who was
convicted for by-passing an oily waste separator. Fellow mariners
and friends….PLEASE…PLEASE…PLEASE…Be careful, be lawful
and don’t jeopardize your freedom or your hard-earned license.
Remainder of News About Attorney General Office's Prosecution
of Chief Engineer
Continued from Tugboat News….
The government was able to prove that the vessel utilized a
removable pipe that could be inserted to bypass the oily-water
separator. These pipe sections have been referred to as magic
pipes in the industry and in several other Department of Justice
criminal prosecutions involving engineering officers aboard cruise
ships. In ordinary operation, the oily-water is meant to remove oil
from overboard waste streams such as bilge pump discharges.
The oily-water separator is a mandatory pollution control device on
ships today. The Department of Justice determined that the
discharges were falsely recorded separator in the ship’s oil record
book, required to be produced to the Coast Guard during
inspections. In the conviction, another engineer gave testimony that
the defendant referred to the bypass pipe as the “illegal pipe.” The
significance of this is the defendant’s knowledge of his conduct.
Government prosecutors showed that the illegal pipe was hidden
when the ship was in port to prevent discovery by Coast Guard
personnel. The chief engineer was found guilty in U.S. District Court
in Baltimore of conspiring to violate four different laws that included
making illegal discharges of oil-contaminated bilge waste, violating
the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships; failing to fully maintain an oil
record book, and violating the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships;
making and using materially false documents; and obstructing
agency proceedings. The chief engineer was also found guilty by
the jury of two counts of making materially false statements to the
Coast Guard in 2002 and 2003, relating to the falsified oil record
book. Sentencing is set for January of 2008 before Judge William N.
Nickerson. The engineer could face a maximum of five years in
prison and a $250,000 fine for each count. The ship’s operator,
Pacific Gulf Marine, Inc. pleaded guilty to making illegal discharges
of oil-contaminated waste from each of four ships they managed.
Pacific Gulf Marine was sentenced to pay a $1 million criminal fine
and $500,000 in community service payments and to serve three
years probation. The investigation was conducted by the
Chesapeake Regional Office of the Coast Guard Investigative
Service and the EPA Criminal Investigative Division.
Copyright 2006 - Copyright Warning
Rights reserved - U.S. Copyright Law Carries Criminal & Civil
Penalties for Infringement - 17 U.S.C. § 506 and 18 U.S.C. § 2319
Continued from Perils of the Sea - Important Reading
The maritime industry is a rough place to work. The maritime
professional must be knowledgeable in so many areas, from
navigation to seamanship to engineering. He or she must at times
be officer, scholar, leader, or follower. The maritime professional
also works in a world that has become increasingly regulated,
much more so today than two or three decades ago. One of the
prices the mariner pays for this is to face criminal liability for things
that in the past may have been treated as negligence, where only
monetary fines would have been imposed. If something goes
wrong on a watch, resulting in a collision, oil spill, injury, death, or
other casualty occurs, the maritime professional is vulnerable to
being prosecuted under criminal laws. In such situations, the
conduct of a mariner could be examined from the standpoint of
criminal penal codes. Such penal codes distinguish whether
someone acts intentionally, knowingly, recklessly, or with gross
negligence. The mariner who acts intentionally will bear the
greatest blame from the legal system. Read about criminal
prosecution of a chief engineer on a car-carrying vessel who was
convicted for by-passing an oily waste separator. Fellow mariners
and friends….PLEASE…PLEASE…PLEASE…Be careful, be lawful
and don’t jeopardize your freedom or your hard-earned license.
Remainder of News About Attorney General Office's Prosecution
of Chief Engineer
Continued from Tugboat News….
The government was able to prove that the vessel utilized a
removable pipe that could be inserted to bypass the oily-water
separator. These pipe sections have been referred to as magic
pipes in the industry and in several other Department of Justice
criminal prosecutions involving engineering officers aboard cruise
ships. In ordinary operation, the oily-water is meant to remove oil
from overboard waste streams such as bilge pump discharges.
The oily-water separator is a mandatory pollution control device on
ships today. The Department of Justice determined that the
discharges were falsely recorded separator in the ship’s oil record
book, required to be produced to the Coast Guard during
inspections. In the conviction, another engineer gave testimony that
the defendant referred to the bypass pipe as the “illegal pipe.” The
significance of this is the defendant’s knowledge of his conduct.
Government prosecutors showed that the illegal pipe was hidden
when the ship was in port to prevent discovery by Coast Guard
personnel. The chief engineer was found guilty in U.S. District Court
in Baltimore of conspiring to violate four different laws that included
making illegal discharges of oil-contaminated bilge waste, violating
the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships; failing to fully maintain an oil
record book, and violating the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships;
making and using materially false documents; and obstructing
agency proceedings. The chief engineer was also found guilty by
the jury of two counts of making materially false statements to the
Coast Guard in 2002 and 2003, relating to the falsified oil record
book. Sentencing is set for January of 2008 before Judge William N.
Nickerson. The engineer could face a maximum of five years in
prison and a $250,000 fine for each count. The ship’s operator,
Pacific Gulf Marine, Inc. pleaded guilty to making illegal discharges
of oil-contaminated waste from each of four ships they managed.
Pacific Gulf Marine was sentenced to pay a $1 million criminal fine
and $500,000 in community service payments and to serve three
years probation. The investigation was conducted by the
Chesapeake Regional Office of the Coast Guard Investigative
Service and the EPA Criminal Investigative Division.
Copyright 2006 - Copyright Warning
Rights reserved - U.S. Copyright Law Carries Criminal & Civil
Penalties for Infringement - 17 U.S.C. § 506 and 18 U.S.C. § 2319
| criminalization of the mariner's conduct |
| Tugboat Jobs - Tugboat Employment - Work on Tugs - Maritime Employment - Maritime Jobs Marine Industry Jobs - Marine Employment - Offshore Jobs - Harbor Jobs - Workboat Jobs |
| U.S. Department of Labor - These are contact numbers for Dept of Labor Offices that maintain regional employment, unemployment, wage information ALASKA - Juneau, AK - (907) 465-4518 ARIZONA - Phoenix, AZ - (602) 542-3871 ARKANSAS - Little Rock, AR - (501) 682-4500 CALIFORNIA - Sacramento, CA - (916) 262-2160 COLORADO - Denver, CO - (303) 318-8898 CONNECTICUT, Wethersfield,CT, (860) 263-6255 DELAWARE - Wilmington, DE - (302) 761-8052 DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA - (202) 671-1633 FLORIDA - Tallahassee, FL - (850) 488-1048 GEORGIA - Atlanta, GA - (404) 232-3875 GUAM - Tamuning, GU - (671) 475-7062 HAWAII - Honolulu, HI - (808) 586-8996 IDAHO - Boise, ID - (800) 772-2553 ILLINOIS - Chicago, IL - (312) 793-2316 INDIANA - Indianapolis, IN - (317) 232-7460 IOWA - Des Moines, IA - (515) 281-0255 KANSAS - Topeka, KS - (785) 296-5058 LOUISIANA - Baton Rouge, LA - (225) 342-3141 MAINE - Augusta, ME - (207) 287-2271 MARYLAND - Baltimore, MD - (410) 767-2250 MASSACHUSETTS - Boston, MA - (617) 626-6556 MICHIGAN - Detroit, MI - (313) 456-3090 MINNESOTA - St. Paul, MN - (651) 282-2714 MISSISSIPPI - Jackson, MS - (601) 321-6261 MISSOURI - Jefferson City, MO - (573) 751-3609 |
| U.S. Department of Labor - These are contact numbers for Dept of Labor Offices that maintain regional employment, unemployment, wage information. MONTANA - Helena, MT - (406) 444-2430 NEBRASKA - Lincoln, NE - (402) 471-9964NEVADA - Carson City, NV - (775) 684-0387 NEW HAMPSHIRE - Concord, NH - (603) 228-4123 NEW JERSEY - Trenton, NJ 08625 - (609) 292-0099 NEW MEXICO - Albuquerque, NM - (505) 222-4683 NEW YORK - Albany, NY - (518) 457-6369 NORTH CAROLINA - Raleigh, NC - (919) 733-2936 NORTH DAKOTA - Bismarck, ND - (701) 328-2868 OHIO - Columbus, OH - (614) 752-9494 OKLAHOMA - Oklahoma City, OK - (405) 557-7265 OREGON - Salem, OR - (503) 947-1212 PENNSYLVANIA - Harrisburg, PA - (717) 787-3266 PUERTO RICO Hato Rey, PR - (787) 754-5340 RHODE ISLAND - Cranston, RI - (401) 462-8767 SOUTH CAROLINA - Columbia, SC - (803) 737-2660 SOUTH DAKOTA - Aberdeen, SD - (605) 626-2314 TENNESSEE - Nashville, TN - (615) 741-2284 TEXAS - Austin, TX - (512) 491-4802 UTAH - Salt Lake City, UT - (801) 526-9401 VERMONT - Montpelier, VT - (802) 828-4153 VIRGIN ISLANDS, Charlotte Amalie, VI 340 776-3700 VIRGINIA - Richmond, VA - (804) 786-7496 WASHINGTON - Lacey, WA - (360) 438-4804 WEST VIRGINIA - Charleston, WV - (304) 558-2660 WISCONSIN - Madison, WI - (608) 267-2393 WYOMING - Casper, WY - (307) 473-3807 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Commercial mariners
need to be aware of the
fact that criminal
prosecution can result
from things one might not
realize trigger criminal
law. The ship pictured at
the top of this page was
the subject of a
prosecution involving
among other things,
engine maintenance.
need to be aware of the
fact that criminal
prosecution can result
from things one might not
realize trigger criminal
law. The ship pictured at
the top of this page was
the subject of a
prosecution involving
among other things,
engine maintenance.
| This vessel ran aground in the Bering Sea after experiencing a failure of no.3 cylinder in its main diesel...read how the the incident was prosecuted under US Federal Laws. U.S. Attorney prosecution of Selendang Ayu case. |
Source: NSTB