Dredge vessel crew saves woman swept away by Columbia River

Crew on board the US Army Corps of Engineers dredge vessel Yaquina recently rescued a woman from the Columbia River after she had fallen into the currents several miles upriver.

On the red deck of the massive dredge vessel Yaquina, deck mechanics Tanner Ensworth and Brian Marshall had just returned from a quick run with a small launch boat and were securing the launch boat to the side of the mother vessel.

The Yaquina, slowly chugging up the Columbia River, gorged itself on sediment it sucked up from the river bottom, clearing the channel of large sand mounds called shoals and thereby keeping the federal navigation channel clear for other vessels.

Ensworth and Marshall paused in their work and exchanged a look. “Did you hear that?” Marshall asked.

The deck of the Yaquina is a song of sounds: its engines roaring, the choppy waves walloping the hull, the wind sprinting past.

But this sound was not part of the usual cacophony – and the vessel’s crew were always listening for equipment that sounded “off” – which could be a sign of a malfunction.

The two scanned the water and shores as the Yaquina inched along the river, a few miles south of Reed Island near Washougal, Wash.

After seeing someone in the water, the crew notified Captain Erich Krueck, who ordered the bridge to sound “man overboard” and the rescue mission was on.

Read the full story about the rescue by visiting the Army Corps website.