Galveston duck boat operators, passengers react.
Tours in Galveston continue despite deadly sinking in Mo.
After 28 passengers file into their seats on a day-glo-colored duck boat to embark on a 70-minute tour around Galveston Island, they are briefly walked through safety protocols, courtesy of the tour guide — a suntanned, goateed man wearing a T-shirt with a picture of a DUKW boat (the amphibious vehicles used to invade Normandy Beach during D-Day, among other World War II battles) who referred to himself as Captain Tom.
“We have to do this every time — I’ll bring your attention to the life vests above your head, because we do go in the water,” Captain Tom said. “We have enough for everybody on the duck. If you feel uncomfortable out on the water, you don’t have to ask for a life jacket. Just grab one and put it on. You probably won’t feel uncomfortable because the water is pretty calm today.”
What normally would be considered a run-of-the-mill safety spiel for a lighthearted land-andwater island excursion carried a bit more weight on this scorching Saturday afternoon, two days after a similar duck boat sank during stormy weather on Table Rock Lake in Branson, Mo., killing 17 people. The official cause
has not been determined, but investigators initially blamed thunderstorms and winds that the National Weather Service clocked at 65 mph.
The accident has put duck boats like the ones operated in Galveston under a national microscope, with the Associated Press reporting that duck boats have been linked to the deaths of more than 40 people since 1999.
The Galveston duck boats have been running tours on the island since 1998, rumbling on major thoroughfares such as Seawall Boulevard, Broadway and the Strand Historical District with a short water detour around Offats Bayou.
‘Don’t just shrug it off ’
The company, Galveston Duck Tours, runs 10 to 12 tours per day during the summer and a reduced schedule the rest of the year. Each boat is 31 feet long and 8 feet wide, weighing about 6.5 tons with a 45-pound propeller that keeps it afloat when it enters the water. The Galveston boats were built in 1945, modeled after similar amphibious vehicles used during World War II.
Each boat, with a sky-blue canopy and neon yellow-painted hulls, seats a maximum of 28 people and is equipped with life vests for every passenger in a compartment above the seats under the metal canopy that protects them from the blazing summer sun or inclement weather. Unlike the duck boat that sank in Missouri, the Galveston duck boats are not enclosed by plastic windows. During Captain Tom’s safety speech at the beginning of the tour, he said if passengers had to abandon ship, they would do so through the open-air windows underneath the canopy.
“Make sure your windows are rolled down. We don’t want no broken glass in here,” Captain Tom joked.
Previous investigations of duck boat accidents have found that roofs or canopies on duck boats greatly endanger passengers in the event of a sinking. The passengers, buoyed by life vests, can become trapped against the canopy as the vessel sinks, unable to swim down to openings along the side.
While the Galveston duck boats are inspected annually by the U.S. Coast Guard and have been running without incident in their 20 years of operations, Stephan Sollenberger, the owner of Galveston Duck Tours, said he plans to pay close attention to the details of the accident in Missouri to see whether there are any design flaws he should be aware of.
“You don’t just shrug it off, you want to know what happened, but right now it’s too early. Nobody knows what happened,” Sollenberger said. “Obviously, when more information comes out, we’ll take a serious look at it and see what we can do.”
Sollenberger ran a duck boat tour in Hot Springs, Ark., before opening Galveston Duck Tours. Coincidentally, in 1999, one year after Sollenberger started the Galveston tours, 13 people died when a duck boat sank in Lake Hamilton near Hot Springs.
Desire ‘outweighing the risk’
Sollenberger said all his duck boat operators like Captain Tom must have a U.S. Coast Guard captain’s license, which requires at least 360 days of boating experience, including 90 days within the past three years before applying. Applicants must also pass a drug test within six months of applying and have first-aid and CPR training.
“Our safety protocols haven’t changed,” Sollenberger said. “We’re more fortunate down here where you can see bad weather coming in. It’s a lot less likely to catch you off guard. I don’t want to speculate what happened (in Missouri), but down here, we’ve never been on the water on a day like that.”
Passengers on the Galveston Duck Tours on Saturday were either blissfully unaware of the Missouri accident or willing to take the tour regardless of any potential risk.
“I’ve been visiting Galveston my whole life, and I’ve been wanting to do this my whole life,” said Bryan Leonard from Katy, who took a Saturday afternoon tour. “I’m almost 50 and finally getting to do it. The desire to do it is outweighing the risk.”
Leonard’s girlfriend, Ashly Rodriguez, is a duck-tour veteran. She knew about the Missouri accident but said Offats Bayou is significantly calmer than, say, the rougher surf in the Gulf of Mexico.
“I’ve actually done them four times with my kids. It’s a lot of fun,” Rodriguez said. “They have life jackets. I know how to swim. As long as it doesn’t blow up, we’ll be fine.”
Another passenger, Louela Batt of Kemah, used to vacation with her family in Table Rock Lake, Mo., and went on the same duck boat tour where the accident happened when she was a kid.
Batt and her husband, Travis, wanted to knock the Galveston duck tours off their bucket list, anticipating that all duck boats might eventually be banned because of the spotty safety record. She felt more at ease in the Galveston duck boats because of its open windows, as opposed to the boat that sank in Table Rock Lake.
“Just the little things that make you feel a little bit safer,” Batt said. “There’s no stormy weather. That’s the unfortunate thing that happened over there — it could have been avoided.”