Trawler-World List: The 639 foot cargo ship "New Carissa" went aground about 1,500 feet seaward of the sandy beach near the entrance to Coos Bay, Oregon, on Thursday. The breakers against the ship were estimated at 20 feet and should increase over the weekend. Events leading up to the grounding are vague at this point, but apparently it happened while the ship was laying offshore and awaiting a harbor pilot who could not get out of port due to high seas. I found it interesting that the Captain refused to let any of his crew off the ship the first day and night. He actually waived off the rescue helicopters. During that night, the ship shifted position from perpendicular on the beach to parallel to the beach, and nestled itself deeper into the sand. The crew did manage to pump in seawater as ballast. On Friday, the Captain relented and the U.S. Coast Guard lowered metal baskets, and one by one, helicoptered 23 crewmen to shore. Got to hand it to our Coast Guard, this was in gusting 30 to 50 mph winds. The crew were not happy campers, for the Captain had ordered them all into the engine control room where they spent a miserable night without sleep. Now the 200 foot "Salvage Chief" is sitting in Astoria, about 150 miles north, waiting for seas to subside before heading south to mount a salvage operation. If this tug gets the go-ahead, which the Japanese owners have not yet authorized, the basic plan is to try to pull the ship off the beach at high tide. In salvage operations over the past 40 years, this powerful tug has set down three or more 12,000 pound anchors, attached running lines to the beached vessel, then attempted to winch the hull out of the sand. I am reminded of all the good discussion on TWL regarding anchoring when I learned the size of these rescue anchors. But with a storm packing 50 mph winds predicted for Sunday, response crews now say there is danger the ship will break up before they succeed. As of this morning, no hull fractures have appeared. The ship has almost 400,000 g allons of diesel and heavy fuel oil in double bottomed inside tanks. As you can imagine in today's world, every agency know to man is appearing on the scene. U.S. Coast Guard is transporting personnel out and back from the ship and inventorying supplies of oil spill absorbants along the shoreline; with advice being offered by EPA, DEQ, State Police, Immigration, Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area to protect the endangered Plover birds, Federal Wildlife officials, owners; with Smit Americas personnel from Louisiana, Houston, and a naval architect from New York who are coordinating the rescue operation for the owners. News reporters are just waking up to the fact that this ship rescue attempt is a really big undertaking. No motel rooms within 100 miles. Don Burdick Lake Oswego, Oregon