Tugboat Spence and her barge Guantanamo Bay Express are owned by the American shipping company TransAtlantic Lines LLC.

On 13 June 2001, TransAtlantic Lines won a contract with an estimated cumulative value of $16,738,001 for dedicated ocean liner cargo service to US military installations in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

[6] Contract requirements included provision of dedicated ocean, inter-modal, and related transportation services primarily between the Continental United States and Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The crew, unable to correct the list and fearing that the vessel would sink, abandoned ship by coming alongside the barge and jumping over to its deck.

In this state, water would then have likely entered other spaces through downflooding points, causing progressing flooding and sinking by the stern without capsizing".