�������t¶��

Article 98 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea requires every shipmaster “to render assistance to any person found at sea in danger of being lost.”

The shipmaster quickly realized what had happened and that the vessel had crossed over the pipeline, the records indicate.

“When you’re traveling on a boat and you hit something, there’s a tremendous sense of loss,” said Gregory Tylawsky, a licensed shipmaster and founder of the Maritime Expert Group.

“It’d be controlled chaos onboard,” said Gary Cordes, a retired shipmaster and senior adviser at the Maritime Expert Group, who said he transited the canal nine times between the 1960s and 1980s.

“That is the Godzilla of tugboats,” said Gregory Tylawsky, a licensed shipmaster and founder of the Maritime Expert Group.