Thursday, September 28, 1978
Three Men on Overdue Boat
Canadian and U.S. Coast Guard planes re-searched from
Gloucester to Nova Scotia today for the 52-foot Gloucester fishing vessel,
Alligator.
The vessel and crew of three were reported overdue
yesterday after they failed to return as scheduled Tuesday from what was to be a two day
trip to Seal Island, Nova Scotia. The Coast Guard search began at noon yesterday after
Gloucester fisherman Frank Santuccio reported skipper Carlo
Sinagra and his crew of James Sinagra and Glen Guittarr
overdue. Following established search and rescue procedure, ports along the Massachusetts,
Maine and Canadian coast were checked. Reports were negative and a plane Cape Cod Station
to search for the boat. Canadian Coast Guard planes also joined the search, according to
the U.S. Coast Guard spokesman David Harris.
This morning, one fixed-wing plane from Elizabeth City,
N.J. and a helicopter from Cape Cod were in the air searching again. More checks were
being made of coastal ports in Maine into which Sinagra may have ducked
to ride out rough conditions which prevailed in the Gulf of Maine for most of the week.
Sources in Nova Scotia said the Alligator had taken on a load of
swordfish Monday and had headed back. One theory that would explain the Alligator's
failure to return on schedule was that it took the long route home along the coast rather
than sailing directly across open ocean from southern Nova Scotia. But Coast Guard
stations all along the Maine coast have been calling for the vessel on emergency radio
frequencies for the past day and almost certainly would have been heard by the vessel if
its radios were working. Inshore fishermen who work with the Alligator say the vessel's
radios were old and had difficulty transmitting long distances, thus, they say the
alligator could have heard the calls but could not respond.
As recorded as follow up in the Times
on Friday the 29th, 1978
The coast Guard resumed its search this
morning for the missing fishing vessel Alligator, three days
overdue on a trip from Nova Scotia. Yesterday's efforts were hampered severely by heavy
fog that grounded the three planes assigned to search from Seal Island, Nova Scotia to
Gloucester Harbor. The search was called off for the day after only three hours. This
morning, the search area was expanded to include all of the Gulf of Maine and waters to
the south from Chatham east onto Georges Bank.
Skies were clear and the search team was
increased to three Coast Guard planes, one Air Force, surveillance jet, a Canadian Coast
Guard plane and the cutter Duane. Fishing vessels in the Gulf of
Maine and Bay of Fundy. have been alerted to be on the lookout for the missing vessel.
Capt. Carlo Sinagra, 48, and
his crew of James Sinagra, 55 and Glen Guittarr, 26,
left Gloucester Sunday on what was planned to be a two-day run to Seal Island to pick up
swordfish and transport it back.
The vessel's route may have been lengthened by
a storm that blew up in the Gulf of Maine earlier this week. Some fishermen familiar with
conditions in the waters between here and Nova Scotia think the 52-foot steel-hulled
dragger may have become disabled while on a run straight for Gloucester from Nova Scotia.
Others think Sinagra may have chosen to take the longer coastal route. So far, there has
been no sign of the vessel along either course and the search continues.
The Alligator and
its crew of three men were never heard from again. |
