Big Ships Play Texas Chicken in Congested Houston Channel
The U.S. energy boom has turned a tiny bayou into one of the world’s most crowded waterways
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It takes an expert pilot to pull off the Texas Chicken. The maneuver requires two ships to chart a course for a head-on collision, then swerve right, and use each other’s wave pressure to move safely past. The Texas Chicken comes in handy when navigating the Houston Ship Channel, a narrow waterway that connects the city’s downtown with Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico.
Hundreds of vessels, from barges to tankers, move through the channel every day. “We’re still trying to stuff these bigger ships up these tiny ditches,” says Captain Mike Morris, presiding officer of the Houston Pilots, the corps of 95 mariners licensed to guide ships on the six-hour trip up the channel. “Everywhere you look in the port, we’re expanding.”