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Friday, 19 December 2008 17:55 |
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The mariner who abandoned his post on a towboat involved in a summer oil spill on the Mississippi River broke his silence Thursday after initially refusing to testify at a Coast Guard investigation of the accident.
From a witness stand inside the Hale Boggs Federal Building in downtown New Orleans, Terry Carver, 38, told investigators that he left the Mel Oliver towboat three days before the accident after learning that his girlfriend had been spotted with another man.
Carver said his nephew called him on the morning of July 20 to tell him that he saw Carver's girlfriend in a truck with a man. Carver left the towboat that night and drove to Illinois to confront his girlfriend, leaving apprentice mate John Bavaret in charge of the vessel.
Bavaret's license does not allow him to operate a towboat alone, but Carver said he did not worry about leaving Bavaret behind because he often pilots ships by himself.
"He handled the boat real good," he said of Bavaret.
The testimony represents an about-face for Carver, who initially invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. But Carver recently approached the Coast Guard about telling his side of the story, prompting the agency to reopen hearings after concluding a trial-like affair that ended last month after weeks of testimony.
http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/index.ssf?/base/news-0/1229667820263810.xml&coll=1
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