SIU-contracted Maritrans on Jan. 24 announced that the company has established memorial funds in honor of each of the three crew members who lost their lives at sea when the tug Valour sank off the coast of North Carolina. The memorial funds are as follows:
Ron Emory Memorial Fund
c/o Citizens Bank
652 North DuPont Highway
Milford, DE 19963
Fred Brenner Memorial Fund
c/o Wachovia Bank
Martin Plaza Financial Center
1442 Martin Blvd.
Baltimore, MD 21220
Richard Smoot Memorial Fund
c/o Fifth Third Bank
1008 Oak Street
Kenova, WV 25530
For those interested in contributing to these memorial funds, checks may be mailed directly to the accounts listed above. Alternatively, any donations that are received by Maritrans at 302 Knights Run Ave, Suite 1200, Tampa, FL 33602, will be sent to the specified memorial fund account. In the absence of a specific designation, funds will be equally distributed to the three memorial accounts. (Please contact Jennifer Waldman of Maritrans at (813) 209-0686 with any questions regarding the memorial funds.)
The SIU in late January made contributions to each of the three funds.
The Valour sank on Jan. 18 in severe weather. Longtime Seafarer Emory (sailing as an AB/tankerman), former SIU member Brenner (chief mate) and Smoot (chief engineer) perished, while six others survived.
The U.S. Coast Guard is investigating the tragedy, which struck during the pre-dawn hours off the coast of Cape Fear, N.C.
Meanwhile, a detailed article in the Feb. 5 edition of the newspaper St. Petersburg Times credited Maritrans both for its response to the accident and for its overall safety record.
Writer Steve Huettel pointed out that the accident “marked the company’s first deaths since 1988 and the only loss of a tug in its 78-year history.”
He further noted that the same day of the sinking, the company flew survivors’ relatives to Wilmington, N.C. so they could meet with the crew members. The SIU also quickly dispatched an official to Wilmington who helped console the survivors. Additionally, Seafarers-contracted Cape Fear towing brought the survivors to shore and also assisted in the successful recovery of the Valour’s barge, which had separated from the tug during the storm.
“When rescued crew members reached shore, each was handed a cell phone and $750 cash to replace clothes and belongings lost on the Valour,” Huettel wrote. “Maritrans dispatched grief counselors not only for families and survivors but to crews of its 16 vessels and workers at offices in Tampa and Philadelphia. The company flew executives, survivors and their spouses to all three funerals.”
The writer also observed that Maritrans Chief Executive Jonathan Whitworth—whose own father died in a marine accident when Whitworth was 14— “ached to tell families the fate of their loved ones. But he insisted on waiting to talk with the captain of the Valour aboard a tug that rescued most of the crew,” because of lessons learned from the West Virginia mine tragedy earlier that same month when family members mistakenly were told that most of the trapped workers survived.
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