The owners of Spudnik, a rusted former 1945 U.S. Navy landing ship which went adrift in Howe Sound nearly three years ago, have been ordered by the Federal Court of Canada to pay more than $138,000 to an organization that funds marine clean up.
On Nov. 12, 2014, the rusting steel vessel, co-owned by Squamish’s Steen Larsen and Patricia Wilson through her company Jacobsen Marine & Industrial, broke free of its moorings in high winds while anchored off Newport Beach.
The north winds were recorded at 20 to 30 knots outflowing the sound, according to an incident report by the Ship-Source Oil Pollution Fund.
The vessel drifted out of control until the Coast Guard responded and a tug was hired to tow the barge to a salvage yard in New Westminster where it was cleaned of contaminants, the incident report states.
Spudnik had approximately 5,000 litres of diesel fuel on board and 1,500 litres of lube oil, according to the report.
The fees associated with the rescue and clean up of the vessel were paid through the Ship-Source Oil Pollution Fund in October of 2016 and administrators of the fund later filed a court action to recover its costs after the owners failed to pay, according to the federal court decision made on Aug. 31 in Vancouver.
Neither Larsen nor Wilson filed a statement of defense with the court, the federal decision states.
