Digital Extra

It's still there.

In fact, the company that owned that barge, which was scuttled about 100 feet off Narragansett Town Beach because it sprang a leak while being towed to Middletown, included some of the same people involved in the company currently salvaging the North Cape.

John James Witte and Joseph Coyne were officials of the Witte Marine Equipment Co. and the Witmar Salvage Co., both of Staten Island, N.Y. The companies eventually convinced the Rhode Island Superior Court that, although they still had assets, they had no money to remove the barge, the Witte 400, after they scuttled it.

Arnold Witte, son of the deceased owner of the two companies; Jon Witte, a grandson, and Coyne are officials of Donjon Marine, the company salvaging the North Cape.

Eklof Marine Corp., which owns the North Cape, is also involved with Donjon Marine in a joint venture called Donjon Environmental Marine Services.

Here is how the first barge accident has played out:

--Dec. 30, 1982: The 327-foot Witte 400, on a trip from Staten Island to Middletown, starts taking on water. The Coast Guard tells the tug operator to get out of the shipping lanes and sink it. It does -- about 100 feet off the Narragansett Town Beach.

--August 1983 -- Fearing the barge is changing the contour of the shore, the state Coastal Resources Management Council goes to Superior Court to force the owner to remove the barge. But the Witte companies say they sold the barge to a Massachusetts man, Cecil Smith Jr. Smith says he was only hired to salvage it.

--May 1984: Judge Clifford J. Cawley orders the barge removed.

--July 1984: Supreme Court Justice Donald F. Shea tells the Superior Court to reconsider on the issue of Witte's ability to pay.

--May 1985: Witte proposes to bury the barge instead of removing it. Cawley agrees the companies cannot afford to remove it and says they can bury it.

--September 1985: A dredge brought in to start burying the barge is hit by a wave and one of its legs is damaged. The job is called off.

--October 1985: The Witte companies ask for more time to bury the barge. In December, Superior Court Judge Corinne P. Grande extends the deadline by eight months. The companies miss that deadline.

--October 1986: The Coastal Resources Management Council asks that the companies be held in contempt.

--November 1986: The companies tell Superior Court Judge Paul P. Pederzani Jr. they don't have the money to bury the barge.

--January 1987: Pederzani sets another deadline, June 1987, for burying the barge. The companies miss the deadline.

--August 1987: Judge Pederzani declines to find the company in contempt for failing to bury the barge, saying the company can't afford it.

--November 1991: The barge owners agree in court to develop a plan to remove it.

--1992: Congress authorizes the Interior Department to remove the barge. A town official predicts that it will be gone before the 1994 beach season.

--1994: Officials find out that the federal appropriation for removing the barge requires the state or the town to provide additional money.

--1996: The barge is still there. At some low tides you can see its cleats, the decktop fittings from which it was attached to the towing vessel.