Mainly clear. Low around 65F. Winds light and variable..
Mainly clear. Low around 65F. Winds light and variable.
Rescuers come to the aid of three fishermen whose boat, the Gloucester-based Bing Bing, sank Tuesday afternoon off Scituate in this screenshot from drone footage taken by Scituate Fire Lt. Eric Norlin.
The fishing vessel Bing Bing, shown here at the Intershell wharf, sank Tuesday afternoon off the South Shore.
Intershell owner Monte Rome speaks with reporters during the blessing of Intershell’s new surf clam vessel Bing Bing at the Intershell International in Gloucester on June 17, 2018. The boat sank Tuesday but the three crew aboard were rescued.
The Bing Bing’s main cockpit was retrofitted with new technology to adhere with current sea regulations five years ago. The boat sank Tuesday.
Rescuers come to the aid of three fishermen whose boat, the Gloucester-based Bing Bing, sank Tuesday afternoon off Scituate in this screenshot from drone footage taken by Scituate Fire Lt. Eric Norlin.
The fishing vessel Bing Bing, shown here at the Intershell wharf, sank Tuesday afternoon off the South Shore.
Intershell owner Monte Rome speaks with reporters during the blessing of Intershell’s new surf clam vessel Bing Bing at the Intershell International in Gloucester on June 17, 2018. The boat sank Tuesday but the three crew aboard were rescued.
The Bing Bing’s main cockpit was retrofitted with new technology to adhere with current sea regulations five years ago. The boat sank Tuesday.
Monte Rome said two miracles occurred to save the three-man crew aboard his 55-foot Gloucester-based fishing vessel Bing Bing when it sank about a mile off Scituate on Tuesday afternoon, dumping the men — without life jackets or survival suits — into the frigid Atlantic.
One was that Pam Harght was working from her home on a hill in Marshfield, near Humarock Beach in Scituate, and looking out her window. She watched the boat sink right before her eyes. She turned out to be the only person to call 911, at 2:36 p.m., to alert authorities to the sinking, according to Scituate Police.
The other miracle, Rome said, is the 6-inch black hose used to force water down in front of the vessel’s dredge, which typically stays submerged when harvesting clams, formed a “little island” the men could cling to before being rescued.
“By the grace of God, that hose floated,” he said. “That was a total miracle.”
Rome identified the men as Capt. Richard Geranimo of New Jersey, Joe Roderick of Cape Cod, and a crew member named Christian, whose last name was not readily available to him.
“All are well,” he said. “They are going to be just fine.”
Two members of the crew, including the captain, were recovering in South Shore Hospital on Wednesday after swallowing some diesel and salt water, said Rome, owner of Intershell International Corp., a Gloucester-based seafood processor, and the Bing Bing.
The third man checked himself out of the hospital Wednesday morning, said Scituate fire Chief John Murphy.
Rescue officials said the men, believed to be in their 50s, were suffering from severe hypothermia when pulled from the Atlantic.
“These guys were in tough shape,” said Murphy, who was on the Scituate Harbormaster/Fire boat that rescued two of the three crewmembers. “We are thankful they are still alive.”
The men were finding it hard to let go of the black hose they were clinging to grab the life rings being thrown to them for fear of losing buoyancy, Murphy said. He said in another five minutes “they wouldn’t have been on the surface.” The actual rescue took about six to eight minutes, and he estimates they were in the 42-degree water for about 45 minutes. They were also floating in diesel fuel in 4 to 6 foot seas.
Officials have yet to determine what caused the Bing Bing to sink so quickly. The boat was dragging the bottom for clams with a hose down to agitate the sand with a rake behind it.
Rome speculated that “something caused the boat to roll,” dumping it to the starboard side, and dropped the crew in the water, before it sank.
Murphy speculated it could have been the boat was broadside to the seas, causing the boat to be on the wrong pitch when the boat caught something on the starboard side and it pulled the Bing Bing over. The boat wound up in 45 feet of water sitting straight up, and it’s estimated it leaked between 1,000 and 1,500 gallons of fuel.
Rome said when a boat rolls, it can happen so quickly, there is no time to don life-saving gear. “If you have a roll, it’s immediate,” he said.
The other thing Rome said was “of curiosity” was that the vessel’s emergency position indicating radio beacon, or EPIRB, did not send out a distress signal that would have alerted rescuers.
EPIRBS can be triggered manually or automatically to alert rescuers to a sinking boat’s position. According to NOAA’s website, “Category I EPIRBS are housed in a special bracket equipped with a hydrostatic release. This mechanism releases the EPIRB at water depths of 3-10 feet.” The device then floats to the surface to begin transmitting.
Rome said the life raft was recently inspected and the EPIRB “likewise was new.”
“Those things are kept up on my boats,” he said. The life raft, which is also deployed with a hydrostatic release, eventually deployed and was recovered.
Harght said she was on a work call at home, casually staring out the window, when she saw the fishing boat sink. At first, something looked off about the boat. Then she saw a big cloud of black smoke.
“Thirty seconds later the whole thing disappeared,” she said. She texted a neighbor about what she saw. A few minutes later, she begged off the work call, telling her colleagues she thought she saw a boat sink.
“I just called because I didn’t see anyone showing up,” Harght said about dialing 911. She knew time was of the essence, having had family members in the fishing industry. She thought she would be the 10th or 50th caller, she said, but was the only one. She said she felt terrible she had not called sooner.
She spoke with the Scituate Fire and Police departments and the Coast Guard. She said the Coast Guard asked, “Are you sure you saw a boat sink?” She said the Coast Guard later called her with regular updates, telling her the men were safe and that they had been found alive.
Both the police and firefighters came to her home, going to the highest point where she said they could see a little black speck in the distance. To find the men, Scituate Fire launched its recently-acquired drone, and made visual contact with the fishermen. Rescuers were able to use the coordinates from the drone to guide the Scituate Police Department’s Marine Unit, the Scituate Harbormaster/Fire boat and the Marshfield Harbormaster’s boat to the scene.
#HappeningNow @USCG crews from ASCC and Station Point Allerton are responding to an overturned fishing vessel 1 NM offshore near #Scituate All three crew members are being transported by the local Harbor Master to be examined by EMS. #SAR #CoastGuard #Massachusetts
“All three men were pulled out of the water, suffering from severe hypothermia,” Scituate Police said. All three were taken to Cole Parkway Marina and transported to South Shore Hospital.
While the whole thing lasted an hour, Harght said, it only took crews 15 minutes to rescue the men.
“It’s total luck,” Harght said. “The whole thing is total luck. It happened so fast.”
Coast Guard Petty Officer Emma Fliszar said Wednesday the agency was keeping an eye on the vessel which has been marked as a hazard. She said it will be up to the owner — Rome — to salvage the vessel and mitigate any pollution.
#update The fishing vessel Bing Bing has sunk near #Scituate. Vessel has been marked as a hazard. All crew were rescued safe by harbormaster. @USCG crews monitoring for pollution.
Also Wednesday, the Scituate Fire and Scituate Harbormaster departments, the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection and the U.S. Coast Guard were “working to mitigate the environmental impact from the fuel spill,” according to a Facebook post from the Scituate Fire Department.
@ScituateFire representatives along with @MassDEP and #Scituate Harbormasters continue to remain on scene to mitigate the environmental impact from yesterday’s incident. pic.twitter.com/doteVjqTuH
As far as salvaging the boat, Rome said has hired a salvage company to perform the operation Monday or Tuesday. He said three divers were in the water Wednesday blocking up any potential leaks of fuel.
“The Coast Guard has stood down on the situation on pollution,” Rome said late Wednesday afternoon.
The all-metal vessel, built in Moss Point, Mississippi, in 1977 as a sea clam boat, underwent a 10-month refitting about five years ago, a process that included the work of dozens of local tradesmen at Rose Marine on Main Street under the direction of Intershell.
Rome bought the boat in New Bedford in July 2017, and the re-fit began shortly afterward. All of the boat’s old equipment — engines, electrical wire, all electronics and interior components — was replaced.
“We really had to strip this boat,” Rome told reporter Sean Horgan at the time. “It was right down to the metal.”
Rome will not be bringing Bing Bing back to Gloucester Harbor. Once you hire a salvage company, they own the boat, he said. “That boat was so trimmed out. It was such a wonderful machine. It’s sad to lose her.”
Staff writer Ethan Forman can be reached at 978-675-2714, or by email at eforman@northofboston.com.
Staff writer Ethan Forman can be reached at 978-675-2714, or by email at eforman@northofboston.com.
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