Happened off the coast here back in November during a helluva N'oreaster.
Stay tuned for finger pointing.

Discovery of a body and an empty life raft add to the mysteries of a fishing boat sinking
Story Discussion By RICHARD DEGENER Staff Writer |
Posted: Monday, February 15, 2010 | 2 comments




A beachcomber spending a Saturday morning collecting seashells on a remote North Carolina beach came across a body, but it only deepened the mystery of the last hours of the fishing vessel Sea Tractor.

The body was identified as Kenneth Rose Sr., one of three crewmen missing since the Sea Tractor went down Nov. 11 during a flounder fishing trip off Cape May. The sinking took the lives of Rose Sr., 75, his son Kenneth Rose Jr., 49, both of Broad Creek, N.C., and Larry Forrest, 55, of Cape May County.

The Sea Tractor was due back to Lund’s Fisheries in Lower Township, Cape May County, on the evening of Nov. 11 as a brutal coastal storm hit the area. The crew never made port.

At first authorities thought the body found Nov. 21 on Pea Island, a remote strand on the Outer Banks, about 10 miles south of Nags Head, would provide answers. Dead bodies can do that.

This one didn’t. It just raised more questions.

Three days before the body was discovered, a life raft from the Sea Tractor washed up just several miles away from where the body was eventually found.

For the body and the raft to end up so close together after traveling about 200 miles seemed odd to fishermen. The U.S. Coast Guard said it found the life raft empty the night of the sinking.

A body in the water drifts with currents and tides while a life raft catches the wind like a sail and can go in a completely different direction, so why were they so close together?
The mystery deepened when a preliminary autopsy done by a medical examiner with the medical school at East Carolina University found Rose died of drowning Nov. 16, five days after the sinking.

Question of survival

Rose was not found in a survival suit. He was wearing clothes. Mark Phillips, a commercial fishermen from Greenport, N.Y. who packed his fish at Lund’s that day and then listened to the rescue attempt on the radio, said there is no way Rose could have been treading water for five days in street clothes.

The Coast Guard insists its rescue swimmer, who arrived on a helicopter from Air Station Atlantic City on the night of Nov. 11, searched the life raft and nobody was in it.

“Atlantic City got on scene and saw strobe lights from the life raft and lowered a swimmer. He checked on board,” said Capt. Meredith Austin, commanding officer at Coast Guard Sector Delaware Bay.

The swimmer left the raft in the water that night, but it was checked out again when it came ashore, Capt. Todd Gatlin, a deputy section commander at Sector Delaware Bay, said items such as food, water and a Mylar blanket in the raft were never used. There were also unused survival suits on the raft.

If Rose were in the raft, he likely would have put on a suit.

“There’s no indication he was on the raft,” Gatlin said.

The Rose family is not speaking publicly, pending the final autopsy, but fishermen are asking questions.

“The autopsy said he was alive for five days. He had to be in that raft, or tied to the raft. Did the rescue swimmer actually look in the raft? That is the biggest question,” Phillips said.

Austin initially agreed to make the rescue swimmer and the helicopter pilot available for an interview with The Press of Atlantic City, but later declined to do so until its investigation is complete.

A new mystery

The preliminary autopsy was recently changed. The time of death is now listed as Nov. 11.

Doug Boyd, a spokesman for East Carolina University, said the medical examiner changed her preliminary findings after talking to the Coast Guard. The medical examiner now believes Rose was dead in the water during those five days.

“She had estimated Nov. 16. She said the main reason for the change is the Coast Guard told her the empty life raft had been spotted on Nov. 11. Hearing that, and looking at water temperature and degeneration of the body, it was consistent with that date. There was nowhere else that body could have been if that life raft was empty,” Boyd said.

Fishermen monitoring the radios the night of Nov. 11 believe they heard a Coast Guard helicopter crew find survivors. Clint Walker, who works at Lund’s Fisheries and sold the Sea Tractor to the Rose family, said he was listening with a member of the Rose family, fisherman Joe Rose, at the time.

“The first copter saw people in the raft and in the water but ran out of fuel. It was on the radio and a lot of people heard it,” Walker said.

Phillips said he heard the Coast Guard radio to a fishing boat nearby, the Captain Jeff, that there were people on the raft.

Coast Guard Cmdr. Ben Cooper said family members called that night believing they heard on the radio, “We found three.” Cooper said what they likely heard was, “We found debris.”

Fishermen complain the search was called off too soon. It was suspended at 5:02 p.m., Nov. 12, less than 24 hours after the sinking.

“I think they gave up the search too quick,” said Phillips, acknowledging that the rescue conditions were horrendous.

Austin said they searched beyond the times that survival charts indicated somebody could still be alive. Cooper said the search would have continued if there was any chance for a save.

“We gave absolutely everything we could to this case as we always do. There were very difficult weather conditions out there,” Cooper said.

The 87-foot Coast Guard Cutter Mako was searching for survivors Nov. 12 and had to return to its port in Cape May due to deteriorating weather including 15 to 20 foot seas, 40 to 60 knot winds with higher gusts and visibility as low as a half-mile.

Austin agreed the first medical examiner report raised some questions. She said it’s important to get the final report before making any rash conclusions.

“We’re waiting for the medical examiner to give us a final report. We’re not going to speculate,” Austin said.

Fishing quotas and a freakish storm

The Sea Tractor was fishing for flounder under a system that gives fishermen a set amount of time to land their quota.

Walker said a three-day fluke quota opened up Sunday, Nov. 8, and ended Wednesday, Nov. 11.

“It’s either you go out when they tell you, or you don’t make any money. He had a three-day window. The biggest question is the laws. They’re out there because of these stupid laws. There’s no sense in these lives being in danger. It’s ridiculous,” Walker said.

A post-storm report by the National Weather Service in Mount Holly, Burlington County, shows the 44-foot Sea Tractor was caught in the middle of two storms that met from Nov. 11 to 13 and created the type of storm that only comes once every 10 years.

The remnants of Hurricane Ida had been inland after coming up through the Gulf of Mexico, but had popped back out to sea off the coast of Georgia and then ran into a high pressure system from the north that created a northeaster. The competing weather systems met right over the Mid-Atlantic. Some have dubbed the storm “Nor’Ida.”

The storm was so massive that it had an unusually large fetch — the distance wind blows across open waters — of about 1,000 miles. This created enormous waves, said Jim Eberwine, of the National Weather Service.

“It was a perfect storm,” said Eberwine. “This was a fetch that can lead to triple the size of waves. You can get rogue waves when you get a fetch like this set up.”

A buoy offshore registered one wave at 26.7 feet, the largest measured since 1986. Wind gusts were approaching 60 knots and one hit 80 knots off Virginia. Lower Township, one of the closest points of land to the Sea Tractor, had 50 consecutive hours of sustained winds greater than 34 knots, with one gust hitting 50 knots. Cape May recorded its highest tides since the 1998 storm at 8.21 feet.

‘Every boat has its limitations’

The Sea Tractor was about 20 miles off Indian River Inlet, Del., when it sank, and the crew might have been trying to make safe harbor to the south. Most fishermen had come in earlier with the storm approaching.

Walker said the Sea Tractor was seaworthy but noted, “Every boat has its limitations.” Walker said electronic tracking of the Sea Tractor shows the crew was trying to get in. The last electronic signal was at 6:42 p.m. Nov. 11, and the boat’s emergency beacon, which activates upon sinking, went off at 7:35 p.m.

There was no mayday. Walker said if the storm knocked out the windows, it could have killed the radio and other electronics.

Fishermen at the dock were ready to go search for the Sea Tractor but were advised against it.

Phillips credits the Coast Guard for what they tried to do in such conditions but said the Rose family wants answers on several questions.

Some say at least the men died doing what they loved.

“There are commercial fishermen and then there’s the Rose family. These people loved the ocean. They were out on the ocean 300 days a year. They just fish, fish, fish,” Walker said.

The boat’s final location remains unknown, two bodies are still missing and the cause remains under investigation.

Something fishy there.

__________________
1977 300d 70k--sold 08
1985 300TD 185k+
1984 307d 126k--sold 8/03
1985 409d 65k--sold 06
1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car
1979 300SD 122k--sold 2/11
1999 Fuso FG Expedition Camper
1993 GMC Sierra 6.5 TD 4x4
1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13

The problem is at night in ****ty conditions its hard to see anything let alone a little head sticking above the water.


Since the supplies in the life raft were unused most likely they were never able to get to the raft. It either auto deployed and blew away faster than they could get to it, or the boat went down very fast maybe taking the other two guys with it and the third just couldn't get to it. The frustrating part is he could have been 150ft away when the swimmer was in the raft and they didn't see him.

__________________
2016 Corvette Stingray 2LT
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

I'll bet that's exactly what happened, with the wind blowing like it was that night the survivor could have been 20 feet away and the swimmer might have missed him.

I've lived near the Delaware coast since 1991 and I can say without a doubt that Nor'easter was the worst night I've experienced - it was really bad.

__________________
98 Dodge-Cummins pickup (137K)
13 GLK250 (157k)
06 E320CDI (341K)
16 C300 (89K)
82 300GD Gelaendewagen (54K)

The fact that the life raft and body were found so close together is odd if the body was not in the life raft for most of the time it was in the water.

__________________
1977 300d 70k--sold 08
1985 300TD 185k+
1984 307d 126k--sold 8/03
1985 409d 65k--sold 06
1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car
1979 300SD 122k--sold 2/11
1999 Fuso FG Expedition Camper
1993 GMC Sierra 6.5 TD 4x4
1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13

Maybe he got back in the raft later on.

__________________
You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows - Robert A. Zimmerman

I'm not a mariner but it seems like it would be a good idea (if possible) to tether yourself to the lifeboat when you abandoned ship. Is it possible the person was tethered to the lifeboat (with a long line) when the swimmer inspected it?

I have a great deal of respect for commercial fishermen, it seems like a really tough way to make a living.

__________________
98 Dodge-Cummins pickup (137K)
13 GLK250 (157k)
06 E320CDI (341K)
16 C300 (89K)
82 300GD Gelaendewagen (54K)

Getting into the life raft is usualy the first battle. Provided it doesn't blow away, or isn't ripped away, or the boat doesn't sink to fast, if you can get in you have a good chance of living for a bit longer. The offshore ones have canopy's you can zip up so you bounce around like your in a washing machine as you wait.

__________________
2016 Corvette Stingray 2LT
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

If the raft had a canopy it is even more surprising that they body and raft were found that close together after than much time since the canopy would act like a sail.

__________________
1977 300d 70k--sold 08
1985 300TD 185k+
1984 307d 126k--sold 8/03
1985 409d 65k--sold 06
1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car
1979 300SD 122k--sold 2/11
1999 Fuso FG Expedition Camper
1993 GMC Sierra 6.5 TD 4x4
1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13

Yes Tim, that was a bad storm indeed, made worse by the fact it was slow moving. This boat sank on the night of Wed. 11/11. The worst tides & wind here in NJ weren't until early Friday(the 13th ) morning.
The Coast Guard did go back on the 12th and search and called it off on Thursday evening.

Mr Rose's body was found only wearing a T-shirt and trousers. No shoes. No lifejacket. The water temp here in early Nov was about 52 deg. F. The boat sank at 7:30 pm. The helo was there in an hour. He may have been tethered to the raft, either alive or already drowned and beneath the surface.. Or he may have been swimming freely during the time the CG was on scene and tethered himself to the raft after they left. But te raft was found with 2 survival suits unopened in it. If he had reached the raft, he was unable to board it. He was 73 years old.

I think he tied himself to the raft, succumbed and drowned before the CG arrived. The body would have been submerged and not visible from the surface or the air. Then the current brought his body and the raft "home" to the Carolina coast together. Later, near the Outer Banks, somehow his body slipped free. I hope they examined the arm flesh for signs of rope chafing, if that was even possible.
The raft and the body beached 7 miles apart, after traveling down the coast some 200 miles. Very Curious.


Coast Guard suspends search for 3 fishermen lost off Cape May
Friday, November 13, 2009
STAR-LEDGER STAFF

Joe Rose was sitting in the wheelhouse of his fishing boat at a dock in Cape May Wednesday night when he heard the familiar crackle of his VHF radio.

Like any alert fisherman, Rose's attention was piqued when he heard Coast Guard officials talking about an emergency distress signal they had just received from a boat in trouble.

When they said the name of the boat, his heart sank.

The Sea Tractor. His brother's boat.

"It was devastating. It really was," Rose, 62, said of the radio transmission.

Coast Guard officials said the Sea Tractor, a 44-foot fishing boat, sank Wednesday night in the Atlantic Ocean, 20 miles east of Cape May, in big seas and high winds. Coast Guard rescue crews spent the night and most of yesterday searching the rough, chilly waters for the three men aboard the Sea Tractor: Kenneth Rose Sr., 74; his son Kenneth Jr., 49; and crewman Larry Forrest, 55, all from North Carolina.

Late yesterday afternoon, the Coast Guard ended its search for the three men. There are no plans to resume searching this morning, when conditions are expected to be even worse, a Coast Guard spokeswoman said. Seas were topping 20 feet in the search area, with winds gusting to 55 mph yesterday.

Coast Guard Petty Officer Crystalynn Kneen said search teams covered 387 square miles in poor visibility before suspending the search shortly after 5 p.m.

The Coast Guard received a transmission from the Sea Tractor's emergency position-indicating radio beacon at 7:35 p.m. Wednesday, indicating it was in distress, Petty Officer Jonathan Lindberg said earlier yesterday. A rescue helicopter from Atlantic City arrived at the site an hour later and found an empty life raft with a strobe light attached.

Another fishing boat, the Capt. Jeff, went to the scene to help and found a debris field, including a cooler and the Sea Tractor's emergency radio beacon, Lindberg said....