The proposed redevelopment of the Fifth Street bridge stirred conversation from residents on both sides of the river. As the plan to renovate the bridge progresses, a sunken houseboat lurks underneath – cast aside and ignored.
For the better part of a decade, a Gibson fiberglass houseboat has settled quietly into the scenery. Time, water and weather have transformed a once-safe vessel into a navigational hazard for which no one, individual or municipality, wants to take responsibility.
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The vessel was docked at the Fifth Street Marina until the owner stopped making payments, according to David Lucas, coastal media contact for South Carolina Department of Natural Resources. South Carolina DNR was unable to provide identification of the previous owner.
Possession of the houseboat was given to Eddie Moyer with the intention of giving him a place to stay while he made minor repairs and updates.
Moyer first tied off the boat close to the 13th Street bridge before ultimately floating her down river to the Fifth Street bridge. Moyer was later arrested on unrelated charges. Over time, as water levels fluctuated, and with no one to maintain the vessel while Moyer was incarcerated, the stern took on water and sank, forcing the bow onto the shoreline.
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- Staff Photo: Abandoned boat under Fifth Street bridge
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- Staff Photo: Abandoned boat under Fifth Street bridge
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- Staff Photo: Abandoned boat under Fifth Street bridge
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- Staff Photo: Abandoned boat under Fifth Street bridge
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- Staff Photo: Abandoned boat under Fifth Street bridge
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- Staff Photo: Submerged hull of abandoned houseboat under Fifth Street bridge
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- Staff Photo: Submerged hull of abandoned houseboat under Fifth Street bridge
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- Staff Photo: Submerged hull of abandoned houseboat under Fifth Street bridge
Lucas said after the boat sank, DNR registered it as an abandoned, derelict vessel.
A vessel is declared abandoned and derelict when it has been abandoned on – or in some cases under – public water ways, and when it cannot function under its own power. Once this happens, any group or individual can apply for the rights to the vessel and either move it themselves or have it moved, according to Lucas.
Brad Owens, a local activist, created a group to help remove the abandoned vessel. Owens stated that he started the group because he was tired of seeing an eyesore along the side of the Savannah River.
“It’s trash,” Owens said. “There’s a bunch that needs to be cleaned up along the river.”
South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) states on its website that abandoned derelict vessels like this one are a chronic problem for waterways.
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“We did a survey on the boat and figured out if we tried to lift it out of there, it was going to break apart,” Owens said.
Instead, Owens said that his group devised a plan to remove the vessel by land – dismantling and demolishing it piece-by-piece.
“We came up with 95% of a plan,” said Owens. “The last 5% is the hardest work: setting a date, coordinating the logistics in the group, getting the permissions and lining up the labor and equipment to do it.”
The group’s plan came to a standstill over liability concerns raised by the landowners alongside the river, according to Owens. The group disbanded shortly thereafter.
Lucas said that it was roughly this time that ownership of the vessel was transferred to Savannah Riverkeeper Tonya Bonitatibus.
Bonitatibus denies having ownership of the vessel.
“I was real adamant about not putting it in our name,” Bonitatibus said. “That boat is a piece of trash.”
John Townsend Cooper is an attorney with Cooper & Bilbrey, P.C., which specializes in admiralty and maritime law.
According to Cooper, the Wreck Act is a federal law that requires owners, operators and charterers to mark their wrecks immediately with a buoy or beacon by day and with a light or lantern by night and leave the markings in place until the wreck is removed.
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“Under the Rivers and Harbors Act, even a wreck located outside a navigable channel must be marked and removed by anyone who negligently or intentionally creates a ‘hazard to navigation,’” Cooper wrote in an article on his firm’s website.
The houseboat under Fifth Street bridge appears to be a navigational hazard. The submerged hull is not visible during normal weather conditions yet is just inches beneath the surface of the water.
“The wall poses far more of a navigation hazard than that boat does,” says Bonitatibus, referring to the large brick pillars holding up the Fifth Street bridge.
According to Bonitatibus, a lack of government funding for abandoned boat removal projects will cause the vessel to likely stay where it is indefinitely.
“People don’t like paying taxes. They don’t fully fund these agencies. So, even though these agencies have on their books the job of removing these obstructions, that’s never realized because the funding doesn’t exist,” Bonitatibus said.
MORE: Investigative Report: Savannah Riverkeeper and the City of Augusta
Owens, on the other hand, is hopeful that the new construction on Fifth Street bridge will be the catalyst to get the houseboat removed finally.
“That’s the first thing I would do is get rid of the trash,” Owens said. “I absolutely believe it’s worth doing.”
Anna Porzio is a Correspondent with The Augusta Press. Reach her at anna@theaugustapress.com.
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