Tugboat Arctic Dawn Stuck on Thames River Sandbar Near Gales Ferry
On the morning of November 18, there was some confusion about a boat getting stuck on a sandbar in the Thames River near Gales Ferry, Connecticut. At first, reports said that a big barge called the Mighty Quinn, which is 240 feet long and weighs 2,338 gross tons (gt), had run aground. Luckily, there were no injuries or pollution because of this accident. But it turned out there was a mistake in the report. It wasn’t the Mighty Quinn that got stuck.
The real stranded vessel was the 35-meter-long tugboat Arctic Dawn (IMO: 7404047), which weighs 485 gt. The Arctic Dawn was pushing the empty barge, Mighty Quinn, from Ledyard when it hit the sandbar. The tugboat got stuck there for a few hours before they could get it free again.
Even though the Arctic Dawn was stuck for a while, it was good news that no one was hurt and there was no pollution. There also weren’t any signs of damage to the tugboat once it was safely pulled off the sandbar.
