First post-accident duck-boat tour takes to the Delaware

Note: This story has been changed; the corrected text is below.

Engine rumbling, wheels shuddering down the corrugated steel ramp, and passengers shivering from the cold wind blowing over the bow, a Philadelphia Ride the Ducks vessel dipped its hull into the Delaware River Wednesday for the first time with passengers since last summer's fatal accident.

Establishing his qualifications as a trustworthy captain, helmsman Norman Schultz announced, "I have my master's degree in mallard with a valeducktorian from Aflac University." Throughout the half-hour tour, Schultz, 45, a film and television actor who holds a Coast Guard 60-gross-ton master license, tried gamely to elicit a few laughs, singing the theme to The Love Boat, practicing his brogue, and embellishing historical information with puns and fake factoids.

But the crowd, members of the media who were on the tour strictly for business, refused to quack.

Wednesday's early-morning tour was organized to herald Thursday's resumption of the tourist attraction. The duck tours have been shut down since July 8, the day after one of the 14 amphibious vehicles in the company's Philadelphia fleet broke down during the 30-minute loop on the river, directly in the path of an oncoming barge. Despite desperate calls to avert a collision, the barge rammed into the tour boat, tossing the crew and all 35 passengers into the water. Two young tourists drowned.

"First and foremost, this was a human tragedy," said Chris Herschend, president of the Georgia company that operates similar tours in California and Kentucky, and other tourist attractions throughout the country. "But I believe, out of terrible things, good things can happen."

A detailed investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board and prolonged negotiations with the city and the Coast Guard led to new safety precautions. Each vessel will carry an extra air horn and radio, and signal flags and buoy markers have been repositioned closer to the captain's reach. A manned rescue boat provided by the company will stand by at all times while the ducks ply a shorter, narrower route along the river, and the tours will not be allowed on the water when a large vessel is within half a nautical mile.

Although last summer's deadly confluence of events was a fluke, Herschend said, the company has adopted policies to ensure that if something similar does happen, no one will be hurt.

"I don't know what the probability is of someone coming up the river again just as we break down, but it's so unlikely most people couldn't calculate it," he said.

What can be calculated is the revenue the tours generate, both for the company and the city.

"We are thrilled that the ducks are back," said James J. Cuorato, president of the nonprofit Independence Visitor Center. The tour-boat company rents space in the center for $6,000 a month and shares 10 percent of ticket sales, Cuorato said, and the operation's 50 employees pay wage tax to the city.

"The ducks serve as a catalyst, too," Cuorato said. In July and August, when all 60 trips a day sell out, "spillover" visitors book other city tours.

For months, the company has been hearing from tour groups and people eager to know when the ducks would return to Philadelphia. Nevertheless, Herschend expects to see some decline in business this season: "An accident always has an impact."

This year, the city considered, then rejected, a plan to move the vessels to the Schuylkill. Groups and individuals who believe the vessels are inherently unsafe resisted their return anywhere.

In a statement issued Wednesday, Drew Duffy, one of the attorneys for the victims' families, said, "Philadelphia's tourism is not helped by killing our tourists. The ducks remain deathtraps."

Although the NTSB investigation seems to indicate that the tugboat operator, who was distracted on his cell phone, may have primary responsibility for the accident, the ducks may share some blame. The captain's instruction on how to use life vests was difficult for foreign visitors to understand.

Before beginning Wednesday's voyage, Schultz held aloft an orange "personal flotation device" and clearly described how to put it on, demonstrating by slipping into it himself.

When the vessel lowered into the river, cameramen leaned over the waist-high gunwales and aimed their bulky lenses at the lacy frill of a wake in the cold, muddy water. Reporters from local radio and television stations held their microphones aloft to catch the captain's jokey monologue from the overhead speakers.

Schultz, who has worked for Ride the Ducks for five years, is a friend of Gary Fox, captain of the ill-fated boat. Fox has filed a personal-injury lawsuit against the city and tugboat operator K-Sea Transportation, asserting that he suffered physical and emotional injuries in the accident. "He's doing as well as he can," Schultz said.

Whether Fox will return to the company is to be seen, Herschend said.

For most of Wednesday's trip, Herschend sat beside Anna Gyulai Gaál, a reporter from Hungary. She asked him to confirm a report that his company had given money to the families whose children were on the boat in July.

Herschend declined to comment and said the tragedy had affected him deeply, not just as a businessman but also as a father.

"I can't imagine what it must have been like for the parents, waiting to hear if their kids were OK," he said.

Speaking quietly, avoiding the microphones, he confided to Gyulai Gaál that he had reached out to the survivors and their families, and that several had responded graciously. As a result, he said, he visited Hungary in February to express his grief personally and visit the graves of the students who drowned.

"I would have reached out to their parents if I could have," he said. "But we're being sued."