Digital Extra

Friday, Jan. 19

2 p.m. Fire breaks out in the engine room of 115-foot tugboat Scandia. The tug and its 340-foot barge, North Cape, drift in stormy seas toward the mainland with 4 million gallons of home heating oil.

2:50 p.m. Goast Guard boat arrives at the tug as an explosion occurs, rescues six crew members.

4:45 p.m. Coast Guard returns to put two tug crewmen on the barge. An attempt to drop anchor is unsuccessful. One crewman is taken off by a Coast Guard boat but one remains on board.

6:13 p.m. Tug, still ablaze, and barge are within 600 yards of shore. Coast Guard helicopter is called to lift the remaining crewman off the barge.

6:17 p.m. Tug and barge wash up on Moonstone Beach.

8:40 p.m. Coast Guard reports that the barge is leaking oil.

Saturday, Jan. 20

Throughout much of the day an army of cleanup crews, Coast Guardsmen and politicians converge on the South County beaches. The streets of Galilee are lined with truckloads of oil booms, mobile communication equipment and boats on trailers.

Officials open command center at the Dutch Inn in Galilee.

Coast Guard estimates 700,000 gallons of home heating oil have spilled into the waters west of Point Judith since the grounding.

High winds and surf stall efforts to begin unloading remaining oil from barge.

Shellfishing is banned indefinitely in all South County ponds.

The owner of the tug and barge, Eklof Marine, takes responsibility for the spill and hires hundreds of workers to help clean it up.

Sunday, Jan. 21

11:15 a.m. The first pump begins pumping oil from the North Cape to other barges. Approximately 1million gallons are transferred before the pumps are shut down at 7 p.m. after the hull of the barge Essex cracks above the waterline from banging into North Cape.

The Coast Guard estimates 828,000 gallons of oil spilled since the barge went aground.

Oil containment booms are deployed to protect inlets, coves and ponds, but oil enters some ponds.

More than 11,000 dead and dying lobsters are picked up on South County beaches.

State bans all fishing in a 105-square-mile rectangle of Block Island Sound and calls on the Coast Guard to help enforce the shutdown.

Monday, Jan. 22

7:10 a.m. Pumping begins again. An additional 1 million gallons are removed from North Cape.

Coast Guard says salvage workers have stopped the barge from leaking oil.

Shoreline assessment teams begin looking at shoreline impact.

State biologists report sheens of oil have gotten through protective booms and contaminated Ninigret Pond in Charlestown. Oil is widepread in Point Judith Pond.

State Health Department impounds 43,000 pounds of tainted lobster and 9,000 pounds of contaminated crabs.

Tuesday, Jan. 23

7:10 a.m. Pumping resumes and 869,000 gallons of oil are removed from the barge; 400,000 gallons remain on board. Offloading is suspended as another storm hits the area. Seawater is pumped into the oil tanks to stabilize the barge as the forecast calls for 12-foot seas.

About 1,500 gallons of fuel are removed from the beached tug, Scandia.

Coast Guard vessels equipped with skimming machines work through the day to remove large oil patches east of Point Judith.

Coast Guard says "only trace quantities" of oil are visible east of Point Judith, and that Narragansett Bay is, for the moment, safe.

State fishing ban is broadened to a 250-square-mile area extending across the mouth of the Bay.

Wednesday, Jan. 24

Another storm hits, putting cleanup operations on hold.

North Cape, its tanks pumped free of most of the oil and flooded with seawater for ballast, rests securely on the sandy bottom throughout the rough weather. The tug Scandia, drained of all its fuel, is securely grounded on the beach.

Thursday, Jan. 25

8 a.m. High winds and waves again force officials to postpone barge removal.

Pumping concludes with an estimated 20,000 gallons of oil left on board North Cape.

9 p.m. Air is pumped into barge to give it buoyancy.

Friday, Jan. 26

12:30 a.m. Crews still pumping air into barge. Two tugboats begin trying to dislodge barge from sand bar.

2:30 a.m. North Cape moves several feet, but still grounded. Efforts abandoned as tide begins going out.

8 a.m. More air pumped into barge. Tugs on scene.

10:18 a.m. With tide coming in and lifting the barge , two tugs pull it away from shore and head toward Newport naval base.

9 p.m. North Cape arrives at base towed by the tug Houma.

Saturday, Jan. 27

Late morning. Attempts to pump out remaining fuel from the tubgboat Scandia, still aground at Moonstone, is postponed because of rough seas.

A draft agreement is reached on criteria that need to be met to reopen the closed fishing areas.

Command center officials begin closing down operation at Dutch Inn, expecting to move out by today.

North Cape stays in Newport.