Freighter Runs Aground in Aleutians; 2 Die

Powerful gusts drove a foreign freighter aground, leaving two crewmen dead and 16 others stranded for hours off Dutch Harbor in the Aleutian Islands, 800 miles southwest of here.

The 386-foot vessel Kuroshima went aground Wednesday afternoon in 90-mph winds about 100 yards offshore, the Coast Guard said. It struck a feature known as Second Priest Rock, officials said.

Coast Guard rescuers standing onshore pulled the 16 survivors to safety with a line attached to the ship’s rescue boat. High winds and heavy seas made an air or sea rescue impossible, Lt. Steve McCleary said.

The cause of the accident was still under investigation, but bad weather has been considered a likely factor, officials said.

McCleary said the captain was Japanese and most of the crew was Filipino. Names of the victims were not immediately released.

Petty Officer Mark Hunt said the chief mate died of a heart attack and a crewman died when he was slammed into an object on board the freighter, perhaps as it ran aground. Their bodies were retrieved from the ship, officials said.

Fifteen Coast Guard rescuers suffered from hypothermia or frostbite, officials said.

Hunt said as much as 10,000 gallons of fuel had leaked from a ruptured tank. Fuel washed ashore and tainted a lake. As much as 240,000 gallons may have been on board, the Coast Guard said.

Hunt said the freighter’s owner has assumed responsibility for cleanup and salvage. It was not immediately known if fuel was still leaking from the freighter on Thursday.

The Panamanian-flagged bulk freighter, owned by the Kuroshima Shipping company of Japan, was in water between 4 and 7 feet deep, the Coast Guard said. The ship was in port to load frozen seafood.

Dutch Harbor is a port and industrial district in the island city of Unalaska--the nation’s biggest commercial seafood port, as well as a major center for freight shipping.