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ELIZABETH CITY, N.C. -- The Coast Guard awarded one of its highest medals for heroism yesterday to a rescue swimmer who plunged into an icy chemical spill in the ocean off Virginia a year ago to save six seamen from the sunken tanker Bow Mariner. Petty Officer 3rd Class Dave Foreman received the Coast Guard Medal for entering the 44-degree ocean and helping the six exhausted men from a life raft into a hovering rescue helicopter. Those six men were the only survivors of the Bow Mariner sinking on Feb. 28, 2004 the region's worst maritime disaster in more than...

NORFOLK, Va. - (KRT) - Attorneys representing the surviving crewman of the Bow Mariner say they are trying to negotiate a deal that could offer the men immunity from prosecution in exchange for their testimony. They also want to make sure an investigation into why the ship exploded and sank off the Virginia coast nearly a month ago doesn't have a detrimental effect on any proceedings in Singapore, where the ship was registered. The Singapore-flagged Bow Mariner, carrying 3.2 million gallons of ethanol, sunk 58 miles east of Chincoteague on Feb. 28, leaving three of the predominantly Filipino crew dead...

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. - (KRT) - Sonar images released Friday show the sunken Bow Mariner with huge chunks missing from the deck, an eerie sign of the violent explosions the ship and its crew experienced before sinking 260 feet into the Atlantic. "It obviously had some catastrophic explosions before it sank," said Lt. Todd Haupt, executive officer of the sonar ship. "There are portions of the deck and the bow that are missing." Sonar provided a color-coded, three-dimensional view of the ship, 50 miles off Virginia's Eastern Shore. The smokestack seems in place on the stern of the 570-foot ship,...

3 Killed, 18 Missing in Va. Tanker Blast Feb 29, 1:01 PM (ET) By SONJA BARISIC (AP) The Bow Mariner, a chemical tanker sinks after an explosion off the coast of Virginia, Saturday,... Full Image PORTSMOUTH, Va. (AP) - The Coast Guard searched the frigid Atlantic Sunday for 18 crew members of a tanker that exploded while carrying 3.5 million gallons of ethanol. Three crewmen were known dead and six others were rescued. "Our first and foremost concern will be finding the 18 people that are missing," Coast Guard spokeswoman Krys Hannum said. Hannum said there was no reason to...

Ethanol Tanker Explodes off Virginia Coast; at Least Three Dead Feb 29, 2004 By Sonja Barisic / Associated Press Writer PORTSMOUTH, Va. (AP) - A tanker carrying 3.5 million gallons of industrial ethanol exploded and sank about 50 miles off the Virginia coast Saturday, the Coast Guard said. At least three of the 27 crew members died and most of the others were missing. Two people died among the eight transported by helicopter to Sentara Norfolk General Hospital, spokeswoman Vicky Gray said. The other six men were being evaluated, she said. Toni Keiser, a spokeswoman for Atlantic General Hospital in...

<p>CHINCOTEAGUE, Va. (AP) — A tanker carrying industrial ethanol exploded and sank about 50 miles off the Virginia coast Saturday night, the Coast Guard said.</p> <p>The 570-foot tanker was traveling from New York to Houston when it called in a mayday to the Coast Guard just after 6 p.m., saying there had been an explosion on board, Petty Officer Stacey Pardini of the Coast Guard Atlantic area in Portsmouth said.</p>