Abstract: At approximately 4:00 p.m., Employee #1, a port captain, and coworkers were was using a northwest 95 wt crawler dragline that had been walked onto a spud barge to dig a wide space to virgin material through a boat basin where a steel sheet piling wall was to be driven. At approximately 5:00 p.m., the operator was swinging the boom and digger bucket with material to be dumped to the port side of the spud barge when he observed the barge was listing. The spud barge was getting ready to be moved back when the operator of the three-drum, air-driven winch also noticed that the barge was listing to the port side. Digging ceased, and the deckhands checked the manholes near the rake of the spud barge for water. Salt water was found in the port compartments of the rake and along the port side. A 2 in. pump was secured from the towboat, and the deckhands called the office for another pump. Employee #1 brought a 3 in. pump and some gasoline. He then went back to the yard and picked up another pump, another container of gasoline, and another employee and returned to the boat basin bank. The port captain and the coworker loaded the equipment onto the towboat and rode to the spud barge. Once the three pumps were in operation, the spud barge began coming up. Employee #1 instructed the dragline operator to walk the line back approximately 10 to 15 ft and, while standing under the boom, gave the dragline operator the signal to boom up. He turned around to face the rake of the spud barge to watch for the digger bucket coming over the starboard corner. As the boom was being hoisted, it suddenly fell and struck Employee #1 in the head, killing him. The boom came to rest on top of the rake of the spud barge; the remainder of the boom was in the water with the digger bucket on the bottom.