Tuesday, October 2, 1962
Dragger Lost; 3 Men Missing
Single Survivor Tells of Harrowing Hours
An intensive air-sea search of the waters off
Cape cod was underway today for the three Gloucester fishermen missing after an engine
room explosion early yesterday split and sank their 60-foot whiting dragger, St.
Stephen.
Coast Guard planes and ships are scanning
hundreds of square miles of ocean off Cape Cod for a trace of the three men.
Only one crewman has been rescued after a grim
13 hours clinging to a broken dory in the cold water. His name is Robert E. Hardy.
Hardy was the ship's cook. He is 34 years old, married, with six children. The missing
are:
Capt. Joseph P. Parisi, Jr., 27,
of Gloucester, owner-skipper, married, three children
Charles J. Mason, 29, of Gloucester, married
Lee Hudgins, 52, of Matthews County, VA
Two helicopters and an amphibian aircraft took
off from the Coast Guard Aviation station, at Winter Island, Salem, at 6:30 a.m. today.
Surface craft searched through the night. In the flotilla was the 125 foot cutter Legare,
from Fairhaven, an 82 footer from Provincetown, and four 40 foot picket boats from
lifeboat stations at Chatham and Race Point. The Coast Guard will search at least until
dark tonight, it was reported.
Hardy told a dramatic story
of the harrowing day. He said it was the first trip for him and Mason aboard the 73
year-old East Boothbay-built dragger. Mason planned to sign on the Delaware,
the government-research craft out of Gloucester after one trip on the St.
Stephen.
Capt. Parisi had asked the
two to fill out the crew. Hardy was ashore while his own boat, the New Bedford dragger Growler,
had a new engine installed.
The trip was plagued with troubles. The St.
Stephen left Gloucester early Sunday morning. Her engine failed during the
day, and Capt. Parisi asked Coast Guard assistance, only to cancel the
call later in the day when he got the engine going again. then the main drag wire parted
on the net and the vessel lay throughout the night.
She resumed fishing Monday morning at daybreak
when the damage was repaired.
Around 6:30 a.m. Hardy said a
fire broke out in the engine room.. It was followed by an explosion which "blew the
stern off the dragger." All four men succeeded in getting a hold of the broken dory
about 6:30 a.m. yesterday, ten miles off Nauset light.
Within two minutes, Gloucester's oldest
dragger slid beneath the waves. The rest of the story is better told in Hardy's words:
We left Gloucester about 9 o'clock Sunday
morning. When we got on the fishing grounds, we set out and started fishing and made one
set when something went wrong with the engine. She conked out Sunday afternoon and we
called the Coast Guard at Race Point. We asked for assistance to be towed in because every
time we started the engine, the battery threw out heavy sparks. Finally the skipper got
the engine started and he called the Coast Guard and said he didn't need assistance.
We set out our nets again, hauled back and set
again, until about 10 o'clock Sunday night, we hung up and parted the main wire and
couldn't get her all back. So we let her lay there.
Around 6 o'clock Monday morning, the skipper
went down and started the engine again, and he came up and we hauled back all right, so he
said we'd better splice the wire.
He went back aft and looked down through the
companionway and saw a fire in the engine room. He said we'd better get the skiff off the
top of the pilot house and get life preservers.
Then she blew right up, blew the stern right
off of her, blew the pilot house apart and blew the dory off it.
We weren't in the water two minutes when she
(the dragger) was gone. We had to hang onto the broken dory. We hadn't had time even to
get life preservers. She went down between 6:30 and 6:45 o'clock yesterday morning.
Other boats were fishing, but they were quite
a ways from us. Nobody saw the four of us hanging onto that busted skiff. We tried to get
in the dory and balance ourselves, but every time we did it capsized on us and it was
bottom up.
Lee Hudgins was the first man
to disappear. He couldn't hand onto the dory and he got away form us. We couldn't do
anything. He grabbed hold of an empty gas tank but he drifted away form us. He kept
hollering "I can't hold on any longer." It must have been an hour and a half
later that we saw the gas tank floating and Lee was nowhere around.
There were three of us now hanging onto the
skiff. We tried to get the dory right side up, and we succeeded, but every time we got
into it, somehow we couldn't keep it right side up.
Then I noticed the skipper starting to get
pretty tired. Both Charlie Mason and I told him to take it easy. But he
started to shiver and get cold. We did what we could for him. Afterward he kept falling
off and every time we brought him back. But we were getting exhausted too.
Finally we couldn't keep it up and he got away
from us. We had to watch him drown, that's all. We were just too exhausted.
That left Charlie and I on
the dory. It kept turning over. We just had to hang on. A big steamer came by, but
couldn't see us. It would have been hard for them to see us. We just hollered, trying to
get their attention but couldn't.
Our arms were getting tired. Our legs were
doubled up on us. Charlie started to float away from the dory. Finally he was in shock and
started talking about the others. I kept going after him and dragging him back.
Finally my arms gave out and I couldn't move
them. Finally Charlie fell off. He got away from the dory. I couldn't go
after him. I had to watch him drown. It must have been mid-afternoon. The sun was up
pretty high.
I worked my arms and finally got my left hand
to work. I laid on my side. I said to myself, the only thing I can do is to try to turn
the dory right side up. The dory was full of water, but at least it would be something. I
don't know how I did it but I rolled it over, and I sat in the middle of it. The water was
up to my chest. I held onto the rails. I kept working my arms about. Boasts were fishing
in the water but in another direction. They couldn't hear me. It was all right as long as
it was daylight. I was cold, wet, hungry, exhausted.
When dark came, I started to get the shakes. I
couldn't keep my eyes open. I was afraid I would tip the dory over. The Mother of
Frances picked me up about 7:30 last night. I was dazed when I saw her light. I
couldn't have held on much longer.
Then I could hear the engines real loud. By
the grace of God, the skipper opened the pilot house window and stuck his head out. They
stopped the engine and he heard me hollering. I heard him holler, "There's somebody
in the water" and he shouted "Where are you?" I told him. Somebody said
there's a dory full of water, and I kept hollering and they pulled the dory alongside and
pulled me on deck.
[Robert Hardy was the only member of the crew
who did not know how to swim.] |
