The shrimper named Dammit has been a thorn in the side of Chatham County officials for a few years. The derelict commercial fishing vessel built up a reputation for getting loose of its anchors and running into docks along the Vernon River.
Recently, the Dammit broke loose from its moorings and drifted to docks near Montgomery Landing. The Savannah-Chatham police marine patrol towed the vessel — 68 gross tons and 74 feet long, according to the U.S. Coast Guard — to Crooked Creek, a remote area in South Chatham County between the Vernon and Forest rivers where it was felt the Dammit could do little damage if it again broke free.
It was a judgement call that proved wise. On Tuesday, said metro police spokesman Julian Miller in a news release, police and Coast Guard personnel were called to Crooked Creek because the boat had drifted aground and was listing to one side. The Dammit had, however, stayed within the area. Miller said it appeared someone had removed the stern anchor, allowing it to drift ashore.
“It was riding originally with the bow going up the creek,” said Capt. Dana Rutland, local service provider for BoatUS, the company metro police uses to help with towing and salvaging boats. “When we got there the other day, the bow was pointing out the creek. It had swung around. Originally it had the port side out to the marsh, but when she swung around, in addition to the spring tide and the winds, she didn’t come out when the tide turned.”
The decision was made to move it to the shoreline of county-owned property in Turner Creek. With one of the outriggers stuck in the muck beneath water and the other vertical, Rutland and three others with BoatUS went to work Wednesday evening attempting to turn the Dammit upright at low tide.
They pumped water out of the inside of the Dammit while the tide was low, but as it rose again the shrimper took on more water. As one of the two BoatUS towboats was pumping water out of the bow, the boat became lighter and the upright outrigger collapsed, causing the Dammit to turn over completely on its side, in the process capsizing one of the towboats that was tied to the bottom of the shrimper.
“When we started pumping, the outrigger that was down had the boat pinned and the boat didn’t lift the way we anticipated,” Rutland said. “It actually lifted the keel and not the side of the boat, which is what made that outrigger fall. And when that outrigger fell, it came down that incline and it pinned my boat, and that’s what sunk my boat.”
No one was hurt in the incident, and with help of a metro police marine patrol officer and two Coast Guard officers who were monitoring the situation, the capsized towboat was quickly recovered and on its way back to dock.
The Dammit, however, ended the day in much worse condition than it began — completely on its side with an outrigger collapsed, and taking on water.
The risks involved in salvaging abandoned boats run aground is illustrated in the attempt to set the Dammit upright, but the situation also underscores a larger issue of safety threats posed by derelict vessels in Chatham County waterways.
The Dammit and another boat of the same owner, Po Boy II, have been issues for boaters, residents and authorities since March 2010, Miller said.
He said cases are pending in Chatham County state court, but that ownership of the Dammit has been difficult to establish because of the deaths of the couple shown as registered owners.
Those aren’t the only problematic vessels, either. A boat sunk off Isle of Hope causes issues for residents and boaters, and an abandoned vessel run ashore off President Street is an eyesore, and Rutland mentioned one near Tybee Island.
“Any abandoned boats within our waterways are a danger to pedestrian boaters as well as to property owners,” said Chatham County Commissioner Helen Stone. “The county has very little jurisdiction in this area because we do not own the river bottoms, but it is an issue.
“... The county is looking into — and has been looking into — what other coastal areas do for abandoned boats,” she said. “We don’t allow cars to be abandoned on our roads, and I don’t think we should allow boats to be abandoned in our waterways.”
Rutland said he thinks there needs to be long-term anchorage with mooring fields in Chatham County. Such a place, he said, would provide a place for derelict vessels to moor without as much risk of getting loose and damaging private property, and it would also make it easier for authorities to keep track of abandoned boats.
“Something needs to be done before it causes a threat to the environment or navigation,” he said. “Cleaning up after the fact is ridiculous. The marine patrol can only enforce the laws on the books. ...If you’re going to have places where people can’t park in downtown Savannah, you have to have places where they can park. That’s pretty basic, isn’t it?”
As for the Dammit, it’s still much in the state it was Wednesday night. Now that it’s sunk, said Advanced Patrol Officer Mike Ramsey, it doesn’t pose a threat to navigation. Police put a boom around it to absorb anything that might leak, marked the outriggers to warn off boaters and marked it with a light so it’s lit at night.
Authorities are still figuring out what to do with the boat.
“We’re not going to let it sit there and become a problem,” County Attorney Jonathan Hart said. “At the same time, if it’s truly in 20 feet of water, it’s probably not a problem, and that’s one of the reasons we got it off the main waterways.”
On the Web: Watch footage of the attempt to turn the Dammit upright at savannahnow.com/video.