The man steering a tugboat that collided with a ship on the Mississippi was an apprentice without a license and he was in piloting the vessel while the captain had left the ship to handle a problem with his girlfriend, according to testimony at a hearing on the collision Tuesday.

Apprentice John Bavaret testified in a U.S. Coast Guard hearing Tuesday about the moments leading up to the crash and resulting oil spill that shut down the Mississippi River for several days on July 23.

Bavaret said he did not have a pilot's license to steer the tug boat Mel Oliver and he testified that the captain who was supposed to be in charge of the vessel left the boat more than two days before the collision.

Bavaret said personal problems caused Captain Terry Carver had left the ship.

"(It was) something with him and his girlfriend," Bavaret said.

He said that Carver had gone home to Illinois, and was supposed to be back in 18 hours.

But when the company the men worked for, DRD Towing, asked whether Carver was on board in the days leading up to the crash, Bavaret said, "I told them that Terry was on the boat. I covered for him so that he wouldn't lose his pay."

Bavaret testified that the radar had gone out on the tug in the moments before the collision, and that he was trying to reset it when he heard "Mel Oliver" on the radio.

He said, that's when he looked up and saw the ship, Tintomara, headed for the barge.

"It wasn't nice,” Bavaret continued, “I know that. It happened so fast. When [the Tintomara] took the barge and the ship passed, it was fifteen feet in front of me."

Bavaret tested negative for drugs or alcohol in his system the night of the crash.

Bavaret also testified that the steering locked up on the boat when he was trying to turn out of the path of the Tintomara, and that the tug boat that he was piloting was in "poor condition".

Testimony in the Coast Guard hearings is scheduled to continue Wednesday morning.