The Forgotten Tragedy of October 20, 1976: MV George Prince Ferry

I want to share what one of my research assistants has put together in her research.  Great job Kim L. Ngo!

The MV George Prince ferry disaster is considered the worst ferry disaster in the history of the United States.  On the morning of October 20, 1976, MV George Prince, a ferryboat owned and operated by the Louisiana Department of Highways, collided with the SS Frosta, a 22,000-ton Norwegian tanker ship, on the Mississippi River in St. Charles Parish, Louisiana.  George Prince was crossing from Destrehan, Louisiana on the east bank to Luling, Louisiana on the west bank, while Frosta was traveling upriver.  Pilot Egidio Auletta wheeled the George Prince ferry and Pilot Nicholas Colombo directed the Frosta at the time of the collision.  An autopsy showed that Auletta had a 0.09 percent blood alcohol level in his bloodstream, which was nearly the legal limit of 0.10 percent during that time.  A Coast Guard investigation concluded that the primary cause of the disaster was failure to avoid collision by Auletta.  There were ninety-six passengers and crew on the ferry at the time of collision.  Only eighteen passengers survived; seventy-six lives were lost and at least two known to be missing or unidentifiable.  The entire crew of the ferry perished.
 
There are two memorial sites dedicated to this event.  The first one is situated on the ground of St. John Parish’s courthouse in the west bank of the Mississippi River and was built in 1978, two years following the accident.  The second one located at the East Bank Bridge Park in St. Charles Parish was not erected until more than three decades later.  For thirty-three years, controversy surrounding the monument had denied the families of St. Charles Parish from having a dedicated memorial to remember and honor their dead.  Although the tragedy of the ferry accident may have been nearly forgotten over the years for those unaffected by it, the family members of those who perished on the ill-fated George Prince ferry along with those who survived will never forget its devastation.  The St. Charles Parish community’s perseverance to remember through time has made it possible to raise a memorial on its locale in 2009.  Those that were lost, those that have lost, those who survived, and those who responded, can now be dignifiedly commemorated for the event that that has forever marked their lives.

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