Suspected Ferry Joy Riders Sail Right Into Brig

Chances are good that Danny Andrews, Roy Bennett and their 15-year-old companion never heard of a sea chest. That’s the system that pumps seawater through marine engines to keep them cool.

Because of this shortage in nautical know-how, officials said, the trio’s attempt to take a joy ride on a Santa Catalina Island ferryboat Tuesday morning ended with the craft catching fire in Los Angeles Harbor and the three catching a ride to jail.

After the fire was quenched, Andrews, 28, of Bell and Bennett, 28, of Bell Gardens were booked at the Los Angeles Police Department’s Harbor Division Jail on suspicion of grand theft. The youth, whose name was withheld because of his age, was booked on a juvenile count and released to his parents.

Investigators said the three apparently hot-wired the 56-foot Channel Express at San Pedro’s Berth 95 sometime after 2 a.m., started the engines and headed out into the harbor.

“The meatheads . . . didn’t know they had to turn on the cooling system,” said Elaine Vaughan, vice president of marketing for Catalina Express, the firm that owns the boat. “The engines overheated . . . and caught fire.”

The boat went dead in the water in the harbor’s main channel, midway between the Coast Guard base at Reservation Point on Terminal Island and the Angel’s Gate lighthouse on the outer breakwater, according to the Coast Guard.

“The captain of a harbor pilot boat called us at about 3 a.m. to say he’d come upon a passenger ferryboat on fire with three men aboard,” said Petty Officer Brad Smith, a spokesman for the Coast Guard. “He took the three men off, and we sent a boat out to fight the fire. A Los Angeles fireboat arrived on the scene. So did a Long Beach lifeguard boat.”

20-Minute Battle

It took about 20 minutes to extinguish the blaze.

The Coast Guard called Catalina Express and came to the conclusion that the three had stolen the ferryboat. The suspects were transferred to the Coast Guard boat and from there to a boat sent out by the Harbor Division of the Los Angeles Police Department.

Bennett and Andrews remained in custody Tuesday at the Harbor Division Jail. Their arraignment on grand theft charges was expected today.

The 55-passenger Channel Express, one of four ferryboats operated by Catalina Express, was towed to the San Pedro Boatworks, where preliminary estimates placed the damage at close to $350,000.

“The engines are completely burned out, and it’ll need a new exhaust system,” said Jim Geddes, yard foreman at the boat works. “Some of the fiberglass on the hull is scorched, too.”

Vaughan said there was also some vandalism to electronic gear aboard the craft.

Catalina Express--one of two principal operators providing ferry service from the mainland to Avalon and the Isthmus on Catalina--said its service to the island will not be affected by the incident.