Posted on 03/23/2008 8:43:39 PM PDT by lainie
SEATTLE — Four people died Sunday off the coast of Alaska when a commercial fishing boat carrying 47 people began sinking west of the remote port town of Dutch Harbor, officials with the Coast Guard said.
Forty-two people were rescued by the Coast Guard about 120 miles west of Dutch Harbor, in the Aleutian Islands. One person remained missing on Sunday afternoon, and a search was being conducted with helicopters and a C-130 plane, officials said. One of the four died in the rescue operation, they said. The authorities on Sunday had not released the names of the four people who died or the missing person.
The ship later sank, The Associated Press reported Sunday night.
The crew of the boat, the 184-foot Alaska Ranger, contacted the Coast Guard at 2:50 a.m. Sunday to report that it was taking on water. The entire 47-member crew is believed to have put on rescue suits and abandoned the ship for lifeboats, said Petty Officer Third Class Levi Read of the Coast Guard office in Juneau.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
According to AP: The company identified those killed as ship's captain Eric Peter Jacobsen, chief engineer Daniel Cook, mate David Silveira and crewman Byron Carrillo.
Survivors aboard the sister ship Alaska Warrior are due to arrive at Dutch Harbor some time in the next few hours.
prayers for the families!
Isn’t it so sad. Prayers indeed. It’s sad to think of the people to whom they said goodbye before heading out.
I haven’t read how this affects the boats that are currently fishing. It must — this was a floating processing plant.
Statiscally, commercial fishing is one of the most dangerouse jobs there is.
I have many friends in the industry and have attended more funerals than I care to number.
My prayers go out to all involved.
Yes, and I understand Bering Sea fishing is even more challenging than some places. You’re from VA/MD, aren’t you? I have a good friend that’s a captain out of Solomons.
The reason why the Alaska Ranger started taking on water is a bit of a mystery. I’m not sure what losing the rudder has to do with it.
You know, I went ahead and posted this thread because I couldn’t find one, either. I was surprised it wasn’t here already.
Great pics at that link.
In a statement issued Sunday afternoon, the company said of the four dead crew members: “Our thoughts and prayers are with their families and loved ones. We are now concentrating on rescue efforts and are doing our best to obtain accurate information to provide family members.
“We do not have sufficient information to determine why the vessel foundered. We will do everything possible to find out what occurred with the hope that something can be learned that will beo f value to our fishing community.”
The earlier thread was from a different source and earlier in the search. I hope the photographer wasn’t one of the 4 lost...
I served on the icebreaker Glacier in 1970/71. The storms on the Bering Straits were some of the worst I ever saw. Back then, if you wern’t out of the water within about five minutes you would go into cardiac arrest. Our technology has improved since then but our body chemistry hasn’t.
I just watched a tv show about a much larger fishing vessel that fishes for most of the whiting/or was it pollock fish (mCDonalds fish/frozen fishsticks) and how dangerous and treacherous the waters were as well as how damm cold it is.
Poor guys......r i p
Well, if his name is David Graves (as the link suggests), he wasn’t. The lost souls are named in comment #1.
I’ve read a fair bit about the Bering Sea fishermen, and of course I’ve seen the Discovery Channel show. I understand it can be the scariest, darkest hell on earth imaginable.
Technology has come a long way, but they still get out there with hammers and clear deck ice the old fashioned way. :) But at least survival suits and lifesaving techniques have improved.
Got any good stories from the trenches? My dad told me about a North Atlantic sea voyage that had 100 ft. swells, and how everyone on the boat was too scared to be sick. But then, the idea of it, years later, was enough to make him feel queasy.
One of my dream cruises is to cross the Drake Passage. Hopefully some day..
Thanks! I’ll add a link to this thread for cross-referencing.
Now I know why my searches were fruitless. I was using geographical words, mostly.
No mention of sea state at the time, but more than a few ships have been lost by being caught in the trough of high seas after losing steering. They start rolling so heavy they take on water.
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