Lessons Learned
In early December, Soundings contributor John Wooldridge sent me a link to a story about a stranded ship in the Chesapeake Bay. The ship had become an object of curiosity in the Washington, D.C. region, drawing onlookers to a bayside park to watch the effort to refloat the cargo vessel. The story revealed the results of a U.S. Coast Guard investigation of the incident. As it turns out, the 1,095-foot container ship Ever Forward ended up running aground because the pilot was drafting an email when he should have ordered a turn. The investigation revealed that the pilot, who had 15 years of experience, was distracted by a problem from the moment he came aboard the vessel that was running from Baltimore to Norfolk, Virginia. He was on the phone for about…