Nuclear submarine severs tugboat’s tow line to oil barge

PORT ANGELES — A nuclear submarine performing routine exercises off Cape Flattery severed the tow line between a tugboat and an empty oil barge Saturday afternoon, leaving the barge drifting in 16- to 18-foot swells.

Navy spokeswoman Lt. Barbara Mertz confirmed the accident Saturday afternoon but would not say how it happened.

"It’s under investigation," she said.

The Alaska-based tug Ernest Campbell was pulling the barge about 12 miles west of Cape Flattery, the west entrance to the Strait of Juan de Fuca, at 2 p.m. when the attack submarine USS Topeka severed the line.

The barge drifted rapidly to the north in high winds. The Coast Guard rescue tug Barbara Foss, which is stationed at Neah Bay, and a private tugboat from Port Angeles were dispatched to the scene, but within three hours the Ernest Campbell was able to reconnect its line to the barge. Under escort from the Foss, it towed the barge into Port Angeles.

No one was injured and there was no damage to the sub, Mertz said.

Fred Felleman, with the Seattle-based conservation group Ocean Advocates, said it was merely a matter of luck that the barge wasn’t full of oil or in immediate danger of grounding.

"For all the sonar capacity the Navy has, they can’t look up?" he asked. "They might want to figure that out."

The Topeka is based in San Diego, Calif.