New details emerge about SSA employee injury

The Steamship Authority's statement on an incident in which a dock worker suffered a jaw injury has been expanded.

Internal records obtained by The Times show that the boat was still moored at the harbor when it headed out to sea and that proper protocol was not followed.

The steamship originally told the media that the flood was the cause of the accident.

As reported last month, on July 6, a dock worker was hit in the jaw by a spinning winch on the transfer bridge near the gallows in Woods Hole. The dockworker was helping prepare for the Nantucket's departure for the island at 11:05 a.m. Video surveillance of the incident shows the worker clutching his face in apparent pain after the incident. The worker was then taken to Falmouth Hospital for further treatment. The dockworker's name was not released by the Steamship Authority.

The steamship said in a statement at the time that the tide moved the ship, causing the docking winch to spin as the dockworker untied the ship from the dock. Steamship officials also said such incidents were rare.

After the accident, a witness told the Times that it looked as if a cable intended to hold the boat in the slipway had broken.

The Times submitted a records request on July 12 and received a response on July 26 with redacted documents and surveillance footage of the incident.

According to a report filed by the Nantucket's captain with the Maritime Administration on the day of the incident, the ship “slowly drifted out of the slip before the hooks were released from the cargo deck.”

The captain reported at the time that a boatswain attempted to radio that the hooks holding the boat to port were still attached to the moving boat. The lineman at the time also “confirmed that the boat was moving” before the line was released. As a result, the cable “broke” and later had to be repaired by the ferry line's maintenance staff.

Footage of the incident shows the injured dockworker turning a winch to release the tension on a line that was holding the boat to the dock. With a slack line, crew on the boat can release a ring that holds the boat to the dock. As the boat drifted away from the dock, the line tightened and turned the winch, which eventually struck the worker before the line broke.

In a report to the U.S. Coast Guard, the captain reported that the ship was moving due to the tides and the “port engine [was] vice versa.”

According to Sean Driscoll, communications director for the Steamship Authority, the proper protocol when preparing a ferry for departure is to put the engines forward to prevent the ship from drifting.

When asked by the Times after the records request revealed new information about the incident, Driscoll said the details were not released publicly in July because “those facts were not known at the time of the initial statement.”

The steamship also announced that an internal investigation into the incident was being conducted.

Video footage from the Woods Hole terminal parking lot obtained by the Times also shows the captain and crew apparently waiting for another worker before starting their journey. Crew members had pushed the gate at the harbor ramp into the boat, indicating the ramp was closed. Nearly two minutes after the ramp closed, a Steamship worker got off a Steamship shuttle bus, ran to the Nantucket, climbed over the gate and then ran aboard. About 20 seconds later, the boat began moving away from the harbor.

Video footage from inside the Nantucket shows that there was a scramble as the boat left the harbor. After the dockworker was struck in the jaw by the spinning winch, other crew members moved away from the area as the line broke.

According to the report to the Coast Guard, there was no drug use in the incident.

The Occupational Safety and Health Authority considered that the incident did not fall within its jurisdiction.

The internal investigation into the steamship is still ongoing.