Search Called Off for Seamen Missing From Fishing Trawler
The Coast Guard has given up its search for three crewmen who were aboard the fishing trawler Jack Jr. when it was demolished in a collision with an unknown vessel in heavy fog.
Investigators trying to track down the vessel that rammed the 73-foot fishing boat said they are focusing on a Delaware tanker that failed to report an urgent distress call from the trawler that it was about to be hit seven miles west of Point Reyes, 30 miles north of San Francisco.
“You’re going to hit us,” the Jack Jr. said. “Jesus Christ. Oh, my God. Mayday. Mayday. Mayday. Mayday.”
The Coast Guard’s Bodega Bay station monitored the call but the Golden Gate, a 721-foot tanker, never reported the transmission Monday night. Its last communication to the Jack Jr. was a warning: “Ship, stay put.”
But, Coast Guard spokesman Paul Powers said, the Jack Jr. “could have been talking to the Golden Gate and been hit by another vessel. It’s also possible that a ship could hit a boat of that size and not know it.”
The Coast Guard found debris from the missing San Francisco fishing boat, including part of its cabin, but no sign of the skipper and his two crewmen. It suspended its hunt Thursday night and presumed the men to be drowned.
Fishing colleagues organized a memorial flotilla to drop wreaths just outside the Golden Gate Bridge Friday in remembrance of the lost crewmen.
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