on July 27, 1976, in Hong Kong, qualifying on the basis of at least 3 years experience as a third made; he had four. There was no qualifying examination for either license. His radar training was on board a ship during its routine operation.
Testbank
Pilot Douglas J. Grubbs
Douglas J. Grubbs, 36, at the time of the accident was a pilot with the Louisiana State Commission of River Pilots and the Crescent River Pilot's Association, unit #78. He was licensed for the Mississippi River from Huey P. Long Bridge to the Head of the Pass, Industrial Canal to Lake Ponchartrain, and MRGO to Light 78. He had been a pilot for 11 years, and was licensed since 1966. He started sailing as a deck hand and mate on local harbor tugs and seagoing tugs from about 1963 until 1969. He had sailed about 5 years as a tugboat master, including service on oceangoing tugs, before becoming a Crescent River Port Pilot. He had been sailing on the MRGO since 1964 and had piloted many ships similar to the Testbank, but had never piloted the Testbank before. He estimated that he had piloted over 1,000 ships in the 11 years he had worked on MRGO.
Master Willfried Simmat
Willfried Simmat, 41, had been master of the Testbank since it was launched in September/October 1978. He had been sailing as a master for 16 years and had sailed for 9 years before that. He started as a deck boy and then became an AB, working up to apprentice officer. He went to "nautical school" and received his officer's license. He sailed 3 years as an officer, returned to school, and obtained his master's license. He had sailed about nine consecutive trips using the MRGO to New Orleans. Captain Simmat held a license as master issued at Aurich, Germany, on September 1, 1964, a radio operator's license issued on December 20, 1974, at Bremen Germany, and an engineer's license for up to 600 hp issued at Kiel, Germany on April 1, 1957.
Helmsman Michael Simmat
Michael Simmat, 17, works as an officer apprentice on board the Testbank. He had been on board about 6 weeks but had previously made a trip on the vessel on the MRGO the preceding year. He had been working summers on board ships with his father for 5 or 6 years. His seaman's papers were issued in Germany. For the past year, he had been enrolled in a Merchant Marine Officers School.
