Container Ship Captain Accused of Intoxication Relieved of Duty

The captain of a container ship anchored in the Port of Los Angeles was relieved of duty when he was found intoxicated only hours before the vessel was scheduled to depart, Coast Guard officials said Saturday.

The skipper of the Kaimoku, a 744-foot ship bound for Oakland, was discovered late Friday afternoon with a blood alcohol level of .26--more than six times the legal limit of .04 to operate a vessel, said Lt. (j.g.) Bill Drelling, a command duty officer at the Coast Guard’s Los Angeles Marine Safety office.

Drelling, one of the investigators involved in the case, said the unidentified captain’s condition was first reported by two Coast Guard marine safety inspectors who had been examining a repair job on the ship.

“We had two inspectors on board conducting a routine inspection,” he said. “They got the impression the (captain) was intoxicated and called the investigators. The police . . . were called and they gave him a field sobriety and Breathalyzer test.”

After the tests, the captain was taken off his vessel and the ship was detained, said Drelling. He added that although the captain was not arrested, the case remains open.

“It’s still under investigation, and the end result could be an administrative hearing,” Drelling said.

The Kaimoku, owned by San Francisco-based Matson Navigation Co., left the port two hours after its scheduled departure for Oakland. The ship’s chief mate, who also has a master’s license, replaced the captain, Drelling said.

The incident was the second in the last 16 months near the Los Angeles/Long Beach breakwater involving a ship captain accused of being drunk on duty.

Last year, the captain of a cargo ship was relieved of duty after being accused of being drunk at the helm as his vessel neared the Long Beach harbor breakwater.

A Coast Guard report at the time indicated that panicked crew members on board the Century Hope had radioed for help after the 728-foot ship began weaving erratically. According to the Coast Guard, alcohol tests taken 5 1/2 hours after the incident showed that the ship’s captain, Alan Jones, had a blood level of .07, although the Coast Guard calculated that his blood alcohol level was more than double that when the crew radioed for help.

Jones, a British citizen, conceded that he had had “one whiskey about an hour before sailing” but denied that he had put his ship at risk or was unfit to navigate.