Captain in Missouri Duck Boat Accident That Killed 17 Is Charged with Seaman’s Manslaughter
In an indictment that referenced a little-known law dating to the age of steamships, Kenneth Scott McKee, the captain of the duck boat that sank during a severe July thunderstorm in southwest Missouri, was charged Thursday with misconduct and negligence.
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The statute that McKee was charged under is known colloquially as seaman’s manslaughter and dates to an era when steamboat disasters were commonplace, killing hundreds of people in fires and boiler explosions. In 1838, Congress passed legislation stating that captains and crew could be held criminally liable if anyone on board died as a result of their misconduct, negligence or inattention to duties.
“Until recently, prosecutions under the Seaman’s Manslaughter Statute were a rare event,” Jeanne Grasso, a partner at Blank Rome LLP who specializes in maritime law, wrote in a 2005 article in Benedict’s Maritime Bulletin. From 1848 to 1990, she wrote, there had been only eight major prosecutions under the law. But between 1998 and 2005, the statute was used to prosecute boat captains and crew members in seven major cases.
“Captain in Missouri Duck Boat Accident That Killed 17 Is Charged with Seaman’s Manslaughter,” by Antonia Noori Farzan, was published in The Washington Post on November 9, 2018.