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- 6 Men Lifted from Sinking Scalloper
By Jack Stewardson, Standard-Times staff writer
Posted Jan 18, 1997 at 12:01 AM
Updated Jan 10, 2011 at 7:35 PM
NEW BEDFORD -- With waves crashing over the sides and flooding into the engine room, crew members of the New Bedford-based scalloper Commodore were forced to abandon their sinking boat yesterday about 90 miles southeast of Nantucket.
?You don?t always realize how dangerous Mother Nature can be,? said John Gamache, 33, a deckhand aboard the 86-foot scalloper, which had to be abandoned with its engine room flooded and water crashing over its sides in.
Rescued along with Mr. Gamache were Eric Paiva, 34, the skipper, Craig D?Agostino, 42, the mate, and deckhands Abilio Pacheco, 45, Ray Avila, 29, and Mark Piche, 24, all of New Bedford.
?Survival equipment saved these fishermen?s lives,? said Petty Officer Eric M. Ashwell, a Coast Guard Search and Rescue coordinator who worked on the case throughout the night.
?They had the gear that allowed them to send a distress call when their radio was failing, survival suits to protect them from the elements and a life raft to keep them out of the water.?
Early yesterday morning, the Commodore was thrashed by 15- to 20-foot seas and winds up to 35 knots, and crew members had to brave air temperatures at a bone-chilling 15 degrees as they climbed into their life raft.
?All in all it was pretty scary out there,? said Mr. Gamache yesterday.
The rescue of the crew of the Commodore was the second within hours. The Coast Guard also saved three members of the 96-foot dragger Trinity out of Point Judith, R.I., about 90 miles south of Newport, R.I., on Thursday night.
The Commodore was one of the last of a vanishing breed in the fishing industry, an old, wooden-hulled, Eastern-rigged vessel that was built in Maine in 1966.
On Thursday it had had entered it?s third day of its fishing trip and had about 2,500 pounds of scallops shucked and stowed.
That afternoon the weather began to get rough, and as day turned to night, the seas began to build. Still, the crew of the Commodore continued to fish until about 8 p.m.
Later, Mr. D?Agostino retired to his bunk in the aft section of the scalloper, where the engine room is located. While nodding off to sleep, he was thrashed about his bunk as the scalloper ?took a couple of seas.?
He finally got to sleep for about an hour when Capt. Paiva rushed down to report the bilge alarm had gone off in the pilot house.
?I sat up in my bunk and all I could see was seawater sloshing back and forth below me,? said Mr. D?Agostino.
Crew members were unsure where the water was coming in. Either a plank had let go or a seam had opened up, letting water into the Commodore, which two crew members described as being ?tender? in her advanced years.
The crew hurriedly go the main bilge pump working, but quickly lost battle against the seas. The scalloper?s clutch seized up, causing it to lose motive power.
Crew members were able to make radio contact with a Canadian fishing boat about 100 miles away, but had trouble reaching the Coast Guard. The first inkling that a boat was in trouble reached the Coast Guard around 1240 a.m., when it received a signal from the Commodore?s Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon, a devise which when manually activated sends a signal through an international satellite system.
Coast Guard officials in Boston called Scott Nolan of Barnstable, the boat?s owner. Meanwhile, radio watch standers in Portland, Maine, and Woods Hole heard a weak call for help about 90 miles east, southeast of Nantucket.
A Coast Guard jet was the first to arrive on scene around 215 a.m., finding the vessel foundering in 35 knot winds, driving snow showers with less than a mile visibility and water crashing over the side.
Seas were running 15 to 20 feet, with occasional crest of 30 feet, and the air temperature was about 15 degrees.
The jet did not try to drop pumps into the boat; rather it shadowed the vessel while awaiting a rescue helicopter.
?The water finally got so high, we told the Coast Guard we were going to get into the life raft,? said Mr. Gamache. ?The Coast Guard said a helicopter would be there in another half an hour.?
Mr. D?Agostino said the last time he looked down into the engine room. ?all my clothes go floating -- there goes my sweat suit. There goes my Timberlands.?
?When I got back in the wheelhouse, everybody was in their survival suits,? he said. ?I got my suit on.
?We were in the boat a little while, and then all of a sudden we saw the helicopter come over,? said Mr. Gamache. ?The way they did it, they put us in water and swam us over to the basket.?
The Coast Guard rescue helicopter was piloted by Lt. Felix Danz and Lt. Brian Washburn, and carried flight mechanic Matt Gingrich, and aviation survival specialists Kelly Turner and Buck Beaudry.
"It was tough for the helicopter and pretty scary for us," said Mr. Gamache. "A couple of the guys were getting nervous. We were getting ripped around from one side to the other in the raft."
Mr. Gamache said he was the last to be pulled to safety, but not before a big gust of wind had turned the life raft over, throwing him under the numbing seas.
"I was under the raft trying to get out and a diver came," he said. "I was holding onto the rope and the diver grabbed me and pulled me free."
"All in all they did a real excellent job," he said of the Coast Guard. ?They were real, professionals. Nice guys.?
Born:
- Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007
Name: John Robert Gamache
[John R Gamache]
Gender: Male
Race: White
Birth Date: 5 Jan 1964
Birth Place: New Bedford, Massachusetts
Death Date: 13 Mar 2005
SSN: 018606051
Type of Claim: Birth record established before age of 5.
Notes: 07 Dec 1979: Name listed as JOHN ROBERT GAMACHE; 18 Mar 2005: Name listed as JOHN R GAMACHE
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