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Subject: [NYSUF] 1958 Jim Steers Tug Accident - Reichert, Johnson, Hines, Osthus
Date: Sun, 17 Nov 2002 17:33:28 +0000

An excerpt from my website... New articles on the incident posted 11-17-2002.
Please visit!

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~timemachine/


During a storm on January 19, 1958, "The tug...manned by Capt. ALBERT REICHERT,
42; his son, ALBERT, JR., 22, deckhand; and HERBERT JOHNSON, 54" sunk in the
Long Island Sound near the Stepping Stone Lighthouse near Great Neck (Discover
Missing Tug Sunken in L.I. Sound, Source Unknown). According to reports, "at
the time of her disappearance, THE JIM STEERS was heading east on the Sound for
Northport, L.I., her home port, in company with her sister tug, the George
Steers. Only minutes before the Jim Steers vanished, the two tugs had been in
touch by radio telephone, and nothing was amiss. Those aboard the George Steers
were not alarmed when they lost sight of their companion tug, and did not
realize the boat was missing for hours after they arrived at Northport. The
following day, Capt. ANTHONY HINES, master of the tug Chaplain, reporttted to
the Coast Guard that a steel oil barge he was towing struck "something" near
Stepping Stone Light House close to the time the Jim Steers was last heard
from. The Chaplain was towing the oil barge Hygrade No. 18. The barge captain,
TROND OSTHUS of 861 56th st., Brooklyn, said he was in his cabin when he heard
a "bump," then felt and heard an object rolling beneath the hull. Oathus ran
from the cabin of his 235-foot craft and saw "a dark object and some bubbles
about 50 feet astern," he later testified at a Coast Guard hearing (Heard on
Air, Source Unknown)."

Once the tug boat was located, "submerged in 70 feet of water near Stepping
Stone Light, southwest of Kings Point, L.I.," the search began for the bodies
of the crew....

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