Folksinger Hurt in ‘Grace Bailey’ Mast Catastrophe Asserts Seaman’s Rights

Kate McCann Files One of Three Lawsuits Against Schooner Owner

Peter Swanson Oct 13

READ IN APP

Kate McCann is a folksinger who plays banjo. She specializes in songs about the sea, and is studying ethnomusicology at a university in Newfoundland, that most maritime of Canadian provinces. When she was younger and living in Connecticut, she worked as “chanteyman” at Mystic Seaport and as a deckhand on sailing ships.

The question now before a federal court in Maine is whether McCann was a “seaman” under the Jones Act when the top part of schooner Grace Bailey’s mast broke and fell on her during October 2023.

Grace Bailey, wooden and built in 1882, was carrying passengers on a fall foliage tour of Penobscot Bay at the time of the accident. A witness said a spar landed on McCann’s lap.

Share

“Plaintiff Katherine McCann was on the subject voyage in service of the schooner and acting in the scope and course of her employment as a musician/crewmember of that schooner,” her lawyers wrote in a lawsuit against Grace Bailey owners.

Earlier this month, two other federal suits were filed seeking compensation for injuries in the same accident, which injured a total of five people killed a local doctor. There were 25 passengers and seven crew on board, according to the Coast Guard.

According to McCann writing in her Substack newsletter, she had to spend four nights in a Maine hospital. She also wrote about having been selected as a finalist in a statewide song contest. And she said she planned to attend the awards show six weeks later “even if it means I have to be wheeled onto the stage!”

The Grace Bailey defense team will likely argue that McCann and her co-musicians of the band Skylark may have been entertaining passengers for pay, but as contractors, not crew. As such, they will say, McCann did not meet the criteria to qualify for legal benefits afforded under the Jones Act.

According to McCann’s suit, the fact that the top 25 percent of a 70-foot wooden mast broke off during moderate wind and seas was proof that Grace Bailey had been unseaworthy and that her owners were negligent for having failed to detect rot in the mast.

McCann’s lawyers said she is “entitled to maintenance at a reasonable daily rate and cure until she reaches the point of maximum medical improvement…together with interest, costs and legal fees.”

The Jones Act includes the ability for a successful plaintiff to slap a lien on the vessel itself, so McCann could end up owning Grace Bailey, at least theoretically.

The Report

In its November 21, 2024 investigation report, the U.S. Coast Guard issued nine safety recommendations calling for improved detection of internal wood decay, more rigorous mast inspections, updated testing methods, better crew training, preventive maintenance programs and more comprehensive recordkeeping. Investigators also urged unstepping wooden masts more frequently for inspection and greater cooperation with marine surveyors, sailing organizations and wood-science experts.

Coast Guard headquarters accepted or partially accepted most recommendations but declined broad industry collaboration and additional crew-training guidance, opting instead for limited reviews and potential updates to existing inspection policies.

For the wood-boat crowd, the report will read like porn, with its discussion of “non-destructive testing” and references to stress-wave scanning, resistance micro drilling and fungal identification. It also discussed the differences between sapwood and heartwood on a Douglas fir tree and the optimal growth rings per inch for mast use.

The investigators described how passengers began hearing weird noises above them, but couldn’t see any signs of a problem. Then this:

At 10:12 a.m., a third noise reporting from aloft was recognized by multiple passengers and crewmembers. The captain and mate scanned the rig, finding the mainmast bending at a point approximately 75 percent up the mast. Without delay, the captain ordered everyone to get down. As he did, the mainmast collapsed, twisting, and falling to starboard.

	Grace Bailey 7836612 Roi Redacted 17.9MB ∙ PDF file
Download

Other Lawsuits

Maureen Colvin of Massachusetts was another person, suing Grace Bailey owners. Her lawyers described Colvin’s experience:

Plaintiff was abruptly impacted from above by a sail and subsequently felt the weight of the mast. Plaintiff was propelled down approximately eight feet of stairs, resulting in a violent impact with the floor below.

According to the lawsuit, Colvin was holder of a captain’s license, and so she put the first-aid component of its requirements to good use. She went back up on deck and then.

Plaintiff administered medical care to passengers…Plaintiff discovered Dr. Emily Mecklenburg positioned awkwardly on the vessel with significant bleeding to her head. The plaintiff observed fellow passengers performing CPR on Dr. Mecklenburg, but she perceived that Dr. Mecklenburg was beyond recovery.

The third lawsuit, filed by Christopher and Diane Sarao, centers on his “serious injuries” and her “emotional distress and loss of consortium.”

This lawsuit stands out because it tells the story of a prolonged breakdown in vessel maintenance, inspection, repair and oversight. It reaches beyond the current owner to the people and businesses involved in the schooner’s condition over many years.

So were Tom Lokocz Adams and his company Maine Design, which performed a 2022 pre-purchase survey on the Grace Bailey. So were Raymond Williamson and Ann Williamson of Windjammer Cruises, which sold the boat to her current owners. So were Michael F. Rogers and his company Privateer Boatbuilding, which performed repair on Grace Bailey in 2014, and unspecified “2014 repair defendants.”

The captain of the vessel, Samuel J. Sikkema, was also named as a defendant.