Coast Guard Gets Glimpse of Ship That Mysteriously Sank, Killing 15

Coast Guard investigators confirmed Wednesday that they have located the wreckage of a fishing boat that sank in the Bering Sea in April with 15 people aboard.

The crew searching for the Arctic Rose got a brief view of the vessel Wednesday before the remotely operated vehicle transmitting pictures got tangled in lines. The cable controlling the $100,000 search vehicle snapped, and it was lost under 450 feet of water alongside the Arctic Rose.

“It’s just incredibly disappointing,” said Richard Hansen, owner of Maritime Consultants, the Puyallup, Wash.-based shipwreck hunting company that owned the search vehicle.

“We have very little other than we know it’s the Arctic Rose and we saw a few things. We were only able to do a small percentage of what our mission was. Very disappointing,” Hansen said.

The Arctic Rose sank suddenly in the Bering Sea on April 2, killing all 15 men. The only sign of trouble was a signal from the vessel’s automatic emergency locater beacon. The wreckage was found about 200 miles northwest of St. Paul Island.