Sudden sinking, then a rescue
Published: October 24, 2005
With a swollen load of fish and visions of a fat paycheck, the crew of the Danny Boy II was hauling up the last of its nets Friday afternoon and getting ready to steer home.
That was when everything went wrong.
The 43-foot fishing boat was filling with water and quickly sinking when the four men aboard — including an experienced New Hampshire fisherman and his girlfriend’s 22-year-old son — jumped ship and swam out to a life raft.
The men watched their boat slide into the ocean while waiting for the Coast Guard, which lifted them to safety about an hour later.
“It was probably the scariest day of my life,” said Dan Fale, 22, who was making his sixth trip as a professional fisherman when the boat sank about 100 miles east of Gloucester, Mass.
Fale and the others aboard Danny Boy II had been out on the Atlantic for three days. They had already hauled in about 20,000 pounds of fish — mostly pollock, cod and hake — and were mere minutes from turning back toward Portland, Maine.
Instead, the boat’s captain, Tommy Fleming, noticed problems with the steering equipment. He then watched as water streamed in through the lazaret, a space between decks.
Fleming, who has 20 years in the commercial fishing business, got on the radio to ask for help, but no one responded. He and the other crew members started running gear off the back of the boat to eliminate extra weight.
Five minutes later, the high-water alarm sounded.
“At this point, I realized it was very possible that water was coming into the boat faster than I could pump it out,” said Fleming, 40, of Barrington.
First mate Steve Marston of Portland ordered all of the men to put on their one-piece cold water immersion suits. Fleming, meanwhile, sent a distress signal over the radio, hoping to get the Coast Guard’s attention.
The Coast Guard didn’t respond, but another boat — The Joker — did.
“I’m nervous and shaking, but I managed to get the position out,” Fleming said. “I looked back, and I noticed the guys had the life raft ready to throw into the water. Then it all started to happen, like, wicked fast.”
Fale was the first to jump into the raft.
“I just wanted to get off that boat,” said Fale, who lives in Sandown.
The others — Marston, Fleming and Matt Bryce, of Raymond, Maine — followed soon after.
“Once that happened, I had a huge feeling of relief,” Fleming said. “Everyone was OK. We were all in the raft and no one was seriously injured, as far as we knew.”
They floated for 45 minutes before spotting a bright light on the horizon.
“It was like something from right out of a movie,” Fleming said. “The next thing you know, there’s somebody swimming up to the raft. He was a sight for sore eyes.”
The swimmer helped the four fishermen into a basket, which lifted them into a Coast Guard helicopter en route to Maine.
“It’s been an emotional roller coaster the last 48 hours,” Fleming said. “I’m by myself, sitting there one moment, being calm. Then I’ll feel scared, like I drank too much coffee.”
Though clearly shaken up by the experience, both Fleming and Fale say they’ll probably return to the ocean. The thought doesn’t sit well with Phyllis Giordano, who is Fleming’s girlfriend and Fale’s mother. The incident was a close call for her, too.
“I said to Tommy yesterday: Every job carries a certain amount of risk, but obviously his is greater than most,” she said. “I’m having a hard time trying to comprehend how anybody could want to do that again.”
If you enjoyed this good news Subscribe to Good News Blog
Share this
To share this simply copy and paste one of the below URL's: