Ship

Four crew members aboard a Malta-flagged ship being investigated by the Coast Guard after a dispute in the Chesapeake Bay last week were drunk, and one, armed with a knife, shoved a Maryland Port captain, federal prosecutors charged yesterday. The master of the Ocean Victory, Wojciech Kowalski, 63, of Poland, was charged with failing to ensure the wheelhouse was staffed by a competent crew member and with failing to notify the Coast Guard that the ship did not meet minimum staffing requirements, the Maryland U.S. attorney's office said.

Seattle businessman Richard H. Hadley won back custody of the historic passenger liner S.S. United States yesterday and said he wants to move it to a pier in Baltimore.The rusting and asbestos-ridden ship has been out of service for more than 20 years.It was seized by federal marshals in October because United States Cruises Inc., a company controlled by Mr. Hadley, stopped paying rent on the ship's berth in Newport News, Va.The seizure came in response to a suit filed by Jacksonville, Fla.-based CSX Transportation Inc., which owns the pier where the ship is berthed.

A 712-foot ship loaded with coal that ran aground in the Chesapeake Bay was freed yesterday morning, a week after it became stuck off the coast of Tilghman Island. Workers tried for nearly three days to unload a portion of the 74,000 tons of coal aboard the carrier before finishing the job late Tuesday night. It took another eight hours to remove the ship's ballast water. Once its load was lightened, four tugboats wrested the MV Montrose off the shoal. The ship, which was bound for Romania, is now anchored at Solomons Island, where the Coast Guard is inspecting it. Divers will also examine the ship's bottom to make sure it isn't damaged, Coast Guard Petty Officer Christopher Evanson said.

A Japanese ship carrying cars and construction vehicles ran aground early today in the Chesapeake Bay off Tilghman Island, creating concerns of an oil spill for several hours. But a shift in wind enabled crew members to work the ship free just before noon without spilling any fuel, U.S. Coast Guard officials said.The 42,000-ton, 64-foot ship Pacific Breeze then set anchor in a shipping channel west of the island to await a comprehensive hull inspection by divers before officials will allow it to continue on its way.Coast Guard officials said today there was little chance of the ship's fuel tanks leaking -- and even less after the ship broke free of a muddy sandbar in the shallow water off the bay's main shipping channel.

The 213-passenger sightseeing cruise ship Baltimore Patriot II was spared a trip to the bottom of the Inner Harbor yesterday after a leak was discovered in the after section.City firefighters spent about two hours yesterday morning pumping out water that had tilted the vessel at an angle that brought the rear deck down to the water level.The firefighters also floated a boom to contain spilled fuel oil and were able to keep leakage down to about 1 gallon."Our main concern was the oil and pollution," said Fire Department Capt.

A physician who inspected the cruise ship Horizon, now in dry dock in Baltimore, says the ship's three whirlpool spas deserve "high consideration" as suspects in an outbreak of Legionnaires' disease that may have killed a Long Island man and sickened 29 others.Dr. Joseph Plouffe of Ohio State University, who was hired to advise the ship's owners during the investigation, said that, while it is too early to positively identify the source of the infections, the disease has spread in the past through hot tubs and spas at resorts.

Those immortal words by Capt. James Lawrence as he lay dying on the U.S.S. Chesapeake during the War of 1812 are appropriate to the fate of its sister frigate, the Constellation. The Constellation, reputed to be the oldest surviving U.S. naval vessel, is again threatened. This time it is the wear and tear of old age on its wooden hull and spars. Unless several million dollars can be raised for extensive repairs, the venerable ship could be towed from its place as the centerpiece of Baltimore's rejuvenated downtown, never to return.

If only the original sailors on the Constellation had it as good as the recent crew aboard the former Civil War ship. Raw bars were set up both "fore" and "aft." There were tables featuring mounds of Chinese noodles, seared tuna and shrimp galore. Not a bit of hardtack in sight. It was all part of the Constellation Historic Ships Museum's "10th Annual BLAST!" A couple hundred folks strolled the decks of the ship, enjoying a pleasant evening. "Excellent. We're in the [Inner] Harbor on a ship.

She was supposed to be rubble by now, this once-mighty warship moored at a watery chop shop in South Baltimore.With most of her armored flight deck peeled away, and her weapons and electronics long gone, the USS Coral Sea seems easy prey for torch-wielding workers swarming over the huge gray carcass.But the fighting lady refuses to go quietly, or easily, to her fate: being turned into automobiles, bathroom pipes or microwave ovens."This is not a rusting hulk," says Kerry Ellis, owner of Seawitch Salvage in Fairfield.

Jerome G. Batzer, a woodworking craftsman, banker and the Pride of Baltimore's one-time yard master, died of pneumonia Monday at Beaverbrook Corner, an assisted-living home in Columbia. He was 92 and suffered from Parkinson's disease. Mr. Batzer was born in Baltimore, the second son of John C. and Margaret K. Batzer. He attended St. James School on Aisquith Street until the 10th grade, when he left to learn woodworking at a local trade school. When he turned 15 in 1926, Mr. Batzer landed his first job at Virginia Dare Chocolate Co. on Howard Street in Baltimore.