Posted on: Thursday, January 25, 2007
Damaged ship carrying ammo


By David Waite
Advertiser Staff Writer



A Coast Guard cutter and tugs sat with the Tong Cheng yesterday about 2
miles south of Ke'ehi Lagoon. Water was being pumped out of the
485-foot-long ship to lighten it enough to get into the shallower
waters of the Barbers Point harbor for repairs.


RICHARD AMBO | The Honolulu Advertiser

A ship owned by the People's Republic of China that made an unscheduled
stop in the port of Honolulu to repair a crack in its hull is carrying
an unspecified type of ammunition, the U.S. Coast Guard said yesterday.

High-ranking officials from the Coast Guard and the U.S. Department of
Customs and Border Protection now are conferring with the U.S. State
Department on what to do with the damaged ship and its cargo, officials
said.

Lt. Nikki Samuel, a spokeswoman for the Coast Guard, said a manifest
submitted by the ship indicated it is carrying general cargo, including
plywood and steel, as well as ammunition. The manifest was filed so the
485-foot Chinese-flagged Tong Cheng could get permission to enter
Hawai'i waters to repair a crack in the hull.

But the manifest does not specify what kind of ammunition the ship is
carrying, Samuel said.

Samuel said the ship and its owner indicated the ship was en route from
Busan, South Korea, to the Caribbean when a crack 56 inches long and an
eighth of an inch wide developed in the ship's hull, below the
waterline under the No. 2 cargo hold.

Cargo in the No. 2 hold came in contact with the seawater that leaked
in, Samuel said.

The ship was granted permission on Monday to enter the port in Honolulu
for hull repairs.

Repair workers spent yesterday pumping water out of the hold into a
barge.

That was done to lessen the ship's draft so it can enter Barbers Point
Deep Draft Harbor for more permanent repairs, Samuel said.

Samuel said she called officials at the Customs office in Honolulu to
find out specifics of the cargo and munitions the ship was carrying but
was told that a formal request under the federal Freedom of Information
Act would have to be filed to obtain that information.

Port director Lamar Witmer of the Department of Homeland Security's
Customs and Border Protection office in Hawai'i did not return phone
messages left for him.

The office's media contact also did not return calls.

But an official familiar with the circumstances, who asked not to be
identified because the situation is still developing, said Coast Guard
and Customs officials had not been able to inspect the ship's cargo as
of mid-afternoon yesterday.

"They don't know yet what all is aboard the ship, and the ship's crew
is being evasive about what's aboard and where they were headed other
than for a 'small island' in the Caribbean," the official said.

The official said that if the cargo is bound for Cuba, a problem arises
because an embargo prevents cargo from being shipped out of any U.S.
port to Cuba.

"Even if it were unloaded here, no other ship would be able to
transport ... (the cargo) to Cuba. And if the cargo were to be unloaded
here and presented a safety issue, there are concerns as to who would
be responsible for addressing those concerns," the official said.

After the ship first contacted the Coast Guard, a C-130 aircraft, a
multi-purpose vessel and a team were dispatched to conduct a
preliminary assessment of the damage and determine if there was any
pollution as a result, the Coast Guard said.

A sheen was initially observed; however, the source could not be
identified, it said. Overflights reported no further sighting of
pollution.

A team of technical experts from the USCG Salvage Engineering Response
Team, the Navy's Mobile Diving Salvage Unit One, and commercial
companies assessed the vessel's structural integrity while offshore,
the Coast Guard said.

Based on that assessment, the vessel was granted permission to enter
the port of Honolulu zone for repairs.