By Janice Podsada

Herald Writer

TACOMA — When the wind spit, their hulls groaned. When the waves crashed against their sides, they swayed drunkenly.

The two squatters had been hanging around the Port of Tacoma for months.

From his vantage point above Commencement Bay, harbor master John Lewis could watch their every move. The two derelict ships had been abandoned on state-owned tide flats, where they were more an eyesore than a hazard.

"They were parked there like trailers on a side street," said Lewis, an Edmonds resident whose work takes him to Tacoma. There, he directs tugboats and crews in and out of Commencement Bay like an air traffic controller.

The derelict ships — one made of wood, one of steel — spent most of their days anchored in the harbor like two old dogs soaking up the sun. But the 100-foot World War II wooden supply ship, the Victoria M, was no harmless drifter.

No one suspected its fuel tanks were filled with 3,000 gallons of diesel fuel, or that a row of 55-gallon drums below deck contained 500 gallons of chemical solvents. Or that a canister of pressurized chlorine gas the size of a small missile lay above deck, exposed to the wind and rain. If those valves had cracked, the contents would have curled into the air like an evil genie and formed a deadly cloud of chlorine gas.

In mid-February, Lewis, 46, a former Everett Sea Scout, arrived at work one day and noticed something amiss.

"The bow had gone down about 4 feet," he said.

Rather than trust his eyes, Lewis bought a can of orange spray paint and took a skiff 100 yards out to the ship.

Up close, Lewis saw that the ship’s seams were tight. He was relieved. When a wooden ship sits in water, the timbers expand, the seams swell and the ship stays watertight.

But while the hull appeared sound, Lewis wasn’t taking any chances. He spray-painted a row of arrows on the hull near the waterline. If the ship was sinking, the arrows would sink as well.

For the next 10 days, Lewis watched them slowly disappear.

Each day, he took a skiff out to the Victoria M and snapped digital photographs, e-mailing them to Marv Coleman, Commencement Bay inspector and site manager with the state Department of Ecology.

"Someone might be interested in this," Lewis thought, knowing that a wooden ship will sink rapidly once the dry sections of the hull reach the water.

On his computer screen, Coleman watched the painted arrows dip beneath the waves.

Afloat, a derelict or abandoned ship is a nuisance, but once it sinks, it becomes a marine hazard. And once it’s underwater, it’s difficult to retrieve whatever is stowed on board.

It was time to board that ship.

Coleman alerted the U.S. Coast Guard, who found the bloated fuel tanks and the canister of chlorine gas.

"If that would have spilled, it would have been a disaster," Coleman said.

Two teaspoons of diesel fuel can pollute an entire waterway, and the Victoria M was anchored above the Olympic View salmon habitat restoration site. A fuel spill would have covered the water, choked the eel grass and smothered the juvenile salmon.

The Coast Guard removed the waste barrels and pumped out the water and fuel. The Victoria M is still floating in the harbor, but it’s no longer a hazard. The ship’s owner has not been located.

For his quick thinking, Lewis received the Ecology Department’s Environmental Excellence Award, given each year to someone who improves or protects the environment.

Lewis’ actions were above and beyond the call of duty, said Dale Jensen, manager of the department’s spill prevention and response program.

Last week, Tacoma city leaders, the Coast Guard and Ecology Department officials awarded Lewis the state’s highest environmental award at a Tacoma City Council meeting. Lewis took home a brass plaque, but left these words behind, words he scribbled on the back of a press release before the ceremony.

"I hope every citizen will be a steward of the environment," he said.

"You never can tell what one little thing out of place may turn out to be. It might be insignificant or it might be a catastrophe waiting to happen."

You can call Herald Writer Janice Podsada at 425-339-3029 or send e-mail to podsada@heraldnet.com.