Navy Divers Check Capsized Boat for 2 Missing Men
Navy divers were brought in Thursday to help the Coast Guard search for two Santa Barbara commercial fishermen whose 39-foot boat was found capsized in the ocean 40 miles southwest of Los Angeles.
Coast Guard spokesman James MacPherson said Ted Hashamoto, 36, and William Dawson, 32, were nearly eight days overdue when surface vessels found their boat, the “Carol Lee,” upside down and partially submerged in a part of the ocean where winds whipped waves to heights of 18 feet earlier this week.
A Navy Sea Air and Land (SEAL) diving team was brought in by helicopter when two messages, “Help Inside” and “Help Laz(arette) I am alive” were found scratched on the hull.
The divers found no sign of life inside, but MacPherson said the fishing boat’s eight-foot dinghy was missing and searchers voiced the hope that the men might have launched it after the seas subsided.
He said Coast Guard surface and air units will resume searching at dawn today.
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