“I heard the engines and saw propulsion coming from the water jets,” Bryan said.
“I knew we weren’t using that boat today ... and then I looked at our fuelling schedule, and it wasn’t scheduled for fuelling.”
The dock worker didn’t let the lines go and didn’t know about the Clipper IV leaving.
“All our captains were accounted for, and none of them were on that boat,” said Bryan, adding that the vessel is worth about $8 million.
He called the coast guard and said “ ‘Someone has stolen our boat’ — it’s a call that you don’t want to make.”
Seattle police said the boat was adrift 300 metres off Pier 69 at 7 a.m. when their marine unit arrived on the location.
Police negotiators contacted the man who was on board, which led to a tactical team boarding the Clipper and making the arrest.
The man told police he wanted to get to West Seattle.
Bryan’s feeling was of disbelief: “In 28 years, I’ve never heard of this, and I’ve worked with people in the boat business who are all over the road.”
Bryan watched the ferry on GPS heading south toward the ferris wheel, then making a loop.
“This person was moving around at two and a half knots, like a joy ride,” he said.
“Then it was just drifting by the grain terminal and Elliott Bay marina.”
Bryan called a tug to get on scene and make sure the Clipper didn’t run into anything.
In the meantime, marine units from the coast guard, Seattle police and the port authority had arrived.
A bomb squad and police dogs was called in to deal with a terrorist scenario.
“You have to plan for the worst,” said Bryan.
The Clipper is extemely difficult to drive, and Bryan said he’s very interested to see if the thief had maritime experience.
“It’s not easy to start one of these up — there’s a whole starting protocol. I’m pretty much a dumbass when it comes to technicial things — you can’t be like me.”
There is security footage of the dock and on board the vessel, Bryan said.
“We have cameras all over the place, the access points to the building. We’ve got footage of the person going down the ramp to get onto the [vessel].”
“We also have cameras on the boat.”
The vessel isn’t locked because it’s in a secure perimeter, but the wheelhouse should have been locked, he said.
“There is a locking mechanism, and you have to have the code to get in,” he said.
“Tomorrow morning we will be going through everything. We’ll be looking at the lessons learned and what can we do to prevent this from happening for another 28 years.”
The suspect was booked into King County jail on charges of piracy or grand theft of a vessel. The Clipper was towed back to its dock and will be examined for damage.
The other Clipper sailings were not impacted by the incident. Captains are avoiding the worst of the winds by adjusting their routes, Bryan said.
