Rescue Arrives Too Late for 3 in Fishing Boat

Steve Smith reached out with a harpoon and tapped on the hull of the capsized fishing boat. He heard a rapping in response--strong at first, but then fainter and fainter until there was only silence, followed by what sounded like sucking air.

By the time the Coast Guard arrived with rescue divers, it was too late. All three commercial fishermen trapped in the boat were dead. “We just felt completely helpless,” said Smith, himself a fisherman. “There was nothing we could do.”

The dead included a fisherman out on the boat for the first time.

The vessel, the 45-foot Heather Lynne II, flipped in the fog Thursday morning 45 miles northeast of Boston near a tugboat that was towing a barge. The bodies were pulled from under the boat more than two hours after the 5:24 a.m. distress call.

Coast Guard officials said they didn’t know how the accident happened. But the crew of the tugboat Houma said the Heather Lynne II was trying to pass between the tug and the barge.

The New York-based Eklof Marine, which owns the tug, also owned the barge that ran aground Jan. 19 off the coast of Rhode Island, spilling 828,000 gallons of home heating oil into Block Island Sound. It was Rhode Island’s the state’s worst oil spill.

Smith was anchored half a mile away when he heard a crash.

“We heard the horns from the tug and then a huge crash and immediately got over to the scene,” Smith said. “I actually grabbed a harpoon pole and tapped on the hull to see if there was anyone alive and we heard some tapping in response.”

Coast Guard cutters were on the scene and a dive team was en route. But about 90 minutes after the accident, the upside-down Heather Lynne II turned sideways, as if trying to right itself.

When that happened, the tapping stopped, and Smith heard what sounded like sucking air. Smith believes the crew drowned when the air pocket filled with water--just before rescue divers arrived.