The motor semi Islander struck submerged rocks moments after leaving the Oak Bluffs wharf at 9:15 Wednesday morning and began taking on water through five holes ripped in her hull. But the vessel’s captain, Antone Jardin, wrestled the foundering ship back to port, averting a major disaster and possible sinking of the ship.
The cause of the mishap is under investigation by the Coast Guard’s Marine Safety office in Boston, but Coast Guard officials said yesterday it appears that a previously unplotted rock in the channel may have caused the damage. Earlier reports that a key buoy had drifted out of place were discounted by the Coast Guard and Steamship Authority officials.
The U.S. Coast Guard investigated a mishap in which a fishing boat struck the yawl boat of the schooner Shenandoah Wednesday. The yawl boat, hanging from davits off the stern of the Black Dog ship, was destroyed; the two larger vessels were unharmed.
A U.S. Coast Guard investigation into the sinking of a the fishing boat Robert C. Monday afternoon off Dogfish Bar at the western end of the Vineyard, remains open and active, according to a Coast Guard spokesman The owner of the sunken vessel reportedly has decided not to salvage the 33-foot wooden boat, which went down in 40 to 50 feet of water after colliding with another fishing boat.
A wide-ranging air and sea search for the owner of a 13-foot Hobie Cat was called off late Saturday after the boat owner called the Coast Guard to identify himself. The unmarked sailboat was found washed ashore with its sails up near Lake Tashmoo on Friday.
A Quincy man vacationing on Chappaquiddick was killed yesterday
afternoon after being sucked into the propeller blades of a 47-foot
white cigarette boat piloted by his best friend, William
O'Connell. Mr. O'Connell, a prominent Quincy developer, now
faces charges of operating a motorboat while under the influence of
alcohol and fleeing the scene of a boating accident.
Two Vineyard fishermen barely survived a boating accident south of
Noman's Land on Wednesday morning. Scott Terry, 51, a West Tisbury
artist and avid commercial rod and reel fisherman, has a black eye and a
few bruises, but is very much okay after the boat he was operating
flipped in a rogue wave. He and his crewman, 13-year-old Mitchell
Pachico of Vineyard Haven, were both in the water for a short time.
Bad communication between the bridge and the deck contributed to the
ferry boat accident that nearly drowned a crew member a week ago. A top
inspector with the U.S. Coast Guard, Lieut. Joshua Pennington, told the
Gazette on Friday: "I blame communication overall. There was poor
communication between the crew lowering the vessel [rescue boat] and the
bridge. Typically they communicate by radio, but they weren't
using radios at the time."
Alabama Crew Member Falls to Death on Board Tall Ship Off West Chop
By MAX HART and JAMES KINSELLA
A crew member working aboard the tall ship Alabama fell to his death
on Friday morning while the ship was heading out on a day sail.
Benjamin Sutherland, 18, of Concord, was aloft in the rigging 30
feet up when he apparently slipped and plummeted to the deck below.
Emergency responders who were rushed to the boat were unable to revive
Mr. Sutherland, who was later pronounced dead at the Martha's
Vineyard Hospital.
Four fishermen were lost this past Friday after their boat, the
75-foot steel dragger Lady of Grace from New Bedford, sank in Nantucket
Sound 11 miles east of Cape Pogue. A call for help was never made.
Menemsha Coast Guardsmen in a 47-foot motor lifeboat discovered the
location of the sunken vessel Sunday morning. Divers from the Southeast
Massachusetts Law Enforcement Council assisted the Menemsha crew.
A fatal accident aboard the schooner Alabama during a day sail out of Vineyard Haven in the summer of 2006 involved no violation of U.S. Coast Guard regulations, a report by Coast Guard investigators has found.
