Tugs Free Vessel That Ran Aground in Newport Beach

After being stuck on the Newport Beach shoreline for two days, a 165-foot dredging vessel was pulled free Tuesday by a fleet of tugboats operated by a Long Beach towing firm.

The Eland, a steel-hulled ship acting as a support vessel for a Santa Ana River dredging project, ran aground Sunday morning while trying to tow dredging pipes to an offshore dump site.

Surf, wind and waves carried the vessel toward shore at Orange Street, near the river jetty. During low tides Sunday and Monday it was left well above the surf line, making it a sudden local attraction.

Among the steady stream of camera-toting spectators was Mary Williams, 67, a retired teacher who lives nearby. She set her alarm for 4 a.m. two days in a row to make sure she could catch all the action.

“There’s the excitement of not wanting to miss anything,” said Williams, snug in long underwear, jeans, two long-sleeved shirts, a gray knit cap and blue gloves.

On Monday, she watched as the captain tried to free the ship from the sand during high tide.

The attempt failed, leaving the ship to rock and bob in the surf for a second night while the skipper, Vern Scovell, and his crew of three remained on board.

Casey O’Toole, 46, a builder who also lives nearby, said he had been keeping an eye on the dredging operation since it began Dec. 5.

The $4.5-million project calls for the removal of about 390,000 cubic yards of sand from the river and dumping it into an undersea canyon. The work should be finished by May 1, said Greg Fuderer, spokesman for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

O’Toole, who took photos of the Eland’s two-day imprisonment and returned early Tuesday to videotape the high-tide getaway, was fascinated: “I’ve never seen a ship like this come in this close and get beached.”

The rescue began early Tuesday morning as crew members from Sauce Brothers Ocean Towing finally wrested the 298-ton vessel from the sand. The ship, with two bent propellers and a broken rudder, was towed to Long Beach for repairs.

Nehalem River Dredging Inc., owner of the vessel, was fined $5,000 for waiting 24 hours before notifying the U.S. Coast Guard of the incident, said Coast Guard spokesman Lt. Tony Migliorini.