Judge Announces Salvage Award For Hurricane Ida Response

New Orleans-based Lower River Ship Service LLC and three members of the Currault family, along with a dispatcher for Port Ship Service, have been granted a salvage award of almost $3.8 million for rounding up 23 barges that broke free during Hurricane Ida on the night of August 29, 2021.

Salvage awards were made to Troy Currault, who owns Lower River Ship Service, along with his son, Capt. Nicholas Currault. Andre Currault, another son, also received a salvage award.

Capt. Sidney Freeman, a dispatcher with Port Ship Service, was also included in the salvage. He boarded a Lower River Ship Service vessel prior to the hurricane.

The trial for the salvage claim was held April 22–24 before the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana, with Judge Wendy Vitter presiding. Vitter announced the salvage award in June.

Before The Storm

In preparation for Hurricane Ida, American River Transportation Company (ARTCO) moved its fleeting boats and contracted with a third-party company to provide fleet boats during Hurricane Ida. The court found that “none of those fleet boats were willing to provide fleeting services until daybreak on August 30, 2021” due to weather conditions.

ARTCO operates 11 fleeting facilities on both banks of the Mississippi River between Mile 118 and Mile 115. Lower Ship Service is situated on the left descending bank at Mile 115, below the ARTCO fleets.

ARTCO had more than 900 barges on the Lower Mississippi River and some 500 barges in the fleets just above Lower River’s fleet, the court noted.

As Hurricane Ida approached, Nicholas Currault was captain aboard the Lower River-owned mv. Shell Fueler. Andre Currault was his deckhand. Troy Currault was aboard the mv. Saint Charles, about 180 feet downriver from the Shell Fueler.

Port Ship Service leased dock space from Lower River for its crew boat operations. Freeman boarded the Shell Fueler before Ida made landfall, regarding the vessel as the best vantage point to monitor the Port Ship crew boats during the hurricane.

About 10 p.m. on August 29, a loaded ARTCO barge, which had broken loose from its mooring, struck the stern of the Shell Fueler, according to court documents. After recovering from the impact and starting the backup generator, Capt. Currault noticed more ARTCO barges floating downriver in his direction. He had a line on the dock so he used the wheelwash to fend off the first two barges.

About an hour later, a loaded hopper barge struck the Saint Charles and “got stuck underneath it for about 15 to 20 minutes, causing damage to the bottom of the boat, before going behind a nearby ferry boat,” court documents stated.

With more barges coming amidst estimated 90-knot winds and waves of 3 to 5 feet, the crew had a decision to make: run to safety, or try to retrieve another barge. They called for help on the VHF radio, but none was coming.

The mariners were successful in slowing and then directing a third barge to the riverbank. Then they retrieved another, and another. As the succession of breakaway barges appeared through the driving rain, they caught and beached them.

According to court testimony, the mariners said some of the breakaway barges were “actively sinking or at serious risk of sinking.” This continued for seven hours until daybreak about 6 a.m. Even after daybreak, they still caught and pushed barges to the bank.

Daylight revealed 23 barges safely pushed against the bank.

By daybreak, the number of breakaway barges had slowed down, and the Shell Fueler crew began securing barges using mooring lines at the Lower River dock. Freeman assisted, securing some barges to the Port Ship dock.

Throughout the preceding night, Troy Currault remained aboard the mv. Saint Charles, watching for breakaway barges, radioing reports to the Shell Fueler crew and serving as “coach” of the salvage operations. Freeman served as lookout from the wheelhouse and working on deck. In his testimony, Freeman described conditions on deck as if one would “stick your hand out of the window on the interstate … being stung by rain the whole time.”

The court noted the testimony of the mariners was very creditable.

“Troy Currault’s sincerity was particularly creditable when he emotionally testified that he was afraid on that evening of ‘the conditions, my sons getting hurt, Sidney getting hurt, possibly dying,’” Vitter wrote in her judgment.

The judge was further impressed with Troy Currault’s testimony when he discussed obligations of a mariner.

Currault testified, “A mariner does [what is] correct for everyone whether it’s his barge, a ship’s barge, it does not matter. Everybody is [at] the same level. Your equipment is their equipment. It’s all the same. Try to save it.”

ARTCO’s representatives testified they were notified of the barge breakaways early on by their contract boat, but the contracted fleet boat said it would not act until morning because of safety concerns during the hurricane.

Property damage claims were settled prior to the salvage settlement. The judgement of $3,761,500 was for salvage alone.

“Once every decade or so, an extraordinary case of salvage occurs,” said Adam Davis, the lead attorney who represented Lower River in what was originally just a claim for damages to its two boats.

Davis said everyone who works on the river knows that in a typical breakaway many boats are available and they all scramble to recover barges. In those cases, there is no claim for salvage, nor should there be, Davis said.

But the situation with the Shell Fueler was different, Davis said. With no help coming, the crew chose to single-handedly round up a steady stream of breakaway barges in hurricane conditions.

“This was truly one of those exceptional cases that merited a claim of salvage,” Davis said.

The salvage claim was added sometime after the original claim for property damage to the Lower River boats.

According to court documents, the 23 barges that broke away in Hurricane Ida were valued at just over $18.8 million on the day of the storm. The salvage plaintiffs sought an award of $9.4 million, or about 50 percent of the value of the barges.

Vitter agreed with ARTCO that “an award of $9.4 million would be the largest award in salvage history” and that “such an award would constitute a windfall to the salvage plaintiffs.” The nearly $3.8 million award instead amounted to 20 percent of the market value of the barges.

Besides operating a law firm, Davis holds a pilot’s license with towing endorsement and is a part-time instructor at Delgado Community College, teaching classes for mariners to obtain Coast Guard licensing.