Under the escort of two tugs, 648-foot "Morning Spruce" crosses Columbia River Bar yesterday.

The Singapore flagged car-carrier, Morning Spruce, lost all power and was adrift in 12-foot seas yesterday. They were approximately 12 miles southwest of the Colombia River, when their engines went out for four and a half hours. They contacted the Coast Guard and apprised them of their situation at 11:09 am Sunday.

Initially, the ship was asked to anchor off-shore as repairs were undertaken, but the vessels draft was too great to utilize that option.

At 3:30 pm, the ship’s power was finally restored, the Coast Guard then asked that the vessel remain at its position until its repairs could be verified and a tug could respond to the scene.

The tug Kokua responded to the scene, joined by the tug Vancouver later. The two tugs escorted the previously stricken ship safely across the bar. The ship will go to Portland and remain until a proper inspection of the vessel repairs can take place.

“We are fortunate on two counts today,” said Capt. Bruce Jones, Coast Guard Captain of the Port for Sector Columbia River. “First, that the ship lost propulsion more than ten miles offshore and drifted generally south rather than east toward shore, and second, that there happened to be an available tug of opportunity approaching Astoria at the time.”

The Morning Spruce had 543,000 gallons of deavy diesel as well lube oil and was fully loaded with vehicles.