Hope Fades for Rescue of Four Remaining Fishermen as Coast Guard Scales Back Search

The fishing vessel Kathryn Marie contacted the Coast Guard at 4 p.m. Tuesday and indicated they heard a mayday call at about 5 a. m. The fishing vessel Kathryn Marie reported no name or vessel position was heard on that mayday call......Continue Reading

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The Coast Guard scaled back its search Wednesday for four missing fishermen off the southern New Jersey coast as hopes faded that they would be found alive.

Two crew members of a scallop boat that sank early Tuesday died, and four others remained missing more than a day after the 71-foot Lady Mary went down in rough seas.

Killed were brothers Roy Smith Jr. and Timothy Smith.

 Missing are Frenki Credle, Frank Reyes, William Torres and Tarzan Smith; all the crewmembers are from Cape May County.

Only one crew member, Jose Arias, is known to have survived.

Hometowns and ages were not immediately available, but authorities say they appeared to have split their time between North Carolina and New Jersey. It also was not immediately clear whether Tarzan Smith was related to the Smith brothers.

Only a Coast Guard cutter remained active in the search Wednesday afternoon after helicopters were called back to base, having covered 225 square miles of ocean and finding nothing.

The owner of the Lady Mary believes the scallop boat’s dredge snagged on the ocean floor Tuesday morning, quickly sinking the boat in 40-degree waters.

Boat owner Roy “Fuzzy” Smith, said the Lady Mary’s dredge was sweeping the ocean floor, when he believes it nagged on something.

“It wasn’t that rough, they had to hit something. We’ve done this in 65 mph winds. They must have hung up on a wreck,” Smith said.

Despite the diminished Coast Guard presence, "It's still an active search and rescue operation," Petty Officer Chris McLaughlin said.

Others were not as hopeful.

"People are still hoping for the best, but only an act of God can save them at this point," said Paul Thompson, who runs a charter fishing boat out of the same Cape May dock where the Lady Mary was based. "The only way they could still be alive is if they got up out of the water onto something. But if they had done that, the Coast Guard probably would have seen them."

While the Coast Guard and the National Transportation Safety Board were investigating the cause of the sinking, the head of a North Carolina fishermen's association said foul weather quickly closed in on the boat before it went down.

Sean McKeon, executive director of the North Carolina Fisheries Association, said other scallop boat captains from his state were plying the same waters when weather conditions suddenly worsened.

"I was told the weather got real bad real fast out there yesterday," he said after speaking to several boat captains who were in the area.

The Coast Guard said there were 4- to 7-foot waves in the area at the time of the sinking. The water temperature was 40 degrees - which one national rescue expert termed "an extreme emergency situation," and the air temperature was 33 degrees.

All seven crew members were wearing cold-water survival suits before abandoning ship Tuesday, the Coast Guard said.

But Steven L. Labov, chief of the U.S. Search and Rescue Task Force, has said expected survival time would be under six hours in 40-degree water.

Roy Smith Sr. of Bayboro, N.C. owned the boat, and his son, Roy Jr., is among the missing crew members, according to Clara Burkhardt, office manager of a seafood company that buys fish from the Smiths. Two of the three crew members who were rescued Tuesday died, leaving only one survivor.

All seven crew members were wearing cold-water survival suits before abandoning ship Tuesday, the Coast Guard said.

But Labov has said expected survival time would be under six hours in 40-degree water. The men have been missing for over a day.

The Lady Mary sank at about 5 a.m. Tuesday, according to the only known survivor, Jose Luis Ariese.

It was the second time in just over a week that a scalloper sank off the Cape May coast. On March 17, the Miss Dollie burned and sank about 30 miles offshore. The three men aboard were saved by a nearby scalloper.

But the crew of the Cape May-based Lady Mary were not as lucky Tuesday.

A distress signal was not received until about 2½ hours after the time Ariese said the boat sank. The Coast Guard did not receive a radio distress call until after 7:30 a.m., Coast Guard Senior Chief Petty Officer Steve Carleton said. An EPIRB — Emergency Position-Indicating Radio Beacon — should go off when a boat sinks, but Carleton said there can be delays based on the proximity of satellites that transmit the signal.

An Air Station Atlantic City helicopter crew arrived on the scene at about 8:30 a.m. They found no debris, just a lifeboat. “I saw something flopping out of it that looked like an arm,” rescue swimmer Lake Downham said. But after he was lowered into the water and swam over, he found the raft empty. He deflated it, with his crew flying overhead.

As Downham was being lifted back into the helicopter, he noticed a plank of wood and the familiar red of a survival suit.

“Once he was down, he called for the rescue basket,” said Jason Oyler, whose job as aviation maintenance technician includes lowering the rescue swimmer and pulling up survivors. Downham secured Ariese and began to ask him all kinds of questions: How many on board? Did they have survival suits? When did they go down?

“(Ariese) was anxious to get out of the bucket,” Oyler said. Oyler was excited, too. It was the first time aside from training he had the opportunity to make a rescue. It was a success.

“It made me feel good,” he said. “I didn’t ask (Ariese) any questions. I just had him give me the thumbs up, then turned back to Lake.” Oyler wanted to get his rescue swimmer out of the sea, with 4- to 7-foot waves, and into the helicopter to check Ariese’s vitals.

Pilot Lt. Cmdr. Tina Pena spotted two more victims. But the next two times the crew pulled men up did not turn out as well. One of the crew members was dead; the other — unconscious when he was lifted into the helicopter — died later. Their names have not been released pending notification of next of kin.

Family and friends flooded to Cold Spring Fish & Supply in Lower Township — where the boat had docked for 15 years — desperate for news about their loved ones. There wasn’t much.

“It’s my family out there,” Wayne Green said. “I hope they came out alive. They might have a shot. I just hope they come home.”

Barbara Matthews drove to the dock not even sure if her cousin Brian Jones was on the boat. She knew he was out fishing and often fished on the Lady Mary. The West Cape May woman headed to the dock after attempts to contact Jones were unsuccessful.

Many said boat owner Roy “Fuzzy” Smith Sr., of Bayboro, N.C., was on his way from Delaware after hearing the news. “We just want them to tell us who was on the boat,” Matthews said. “It’s difficult. It’s so many friends and so much family.”

Gathered at the dock, many hugged. Some cried. A local pastor arrived to offer prayers. Robert Jones comforted his mother, Edith, the fiancee of crewman Bernie Smith of Wildwood — the boat owner’s brother. Fuzzy Smith’s elder son Roy Jr., known as Bobo, was captain of the boat. Son Tim, who goes by Timbo, was also believed to be onboard.

“The mother is coming up from North Carolina and she’s just got to be torn up,” said Jones, who lives in Middle Township. “I just pray to God they’re all right. I’m choked up right now. I’m just walking around trying to get myself together.”

“It’s a shame. I knew all those guys,” said Willie Smith, 46, a retired fisherman from Cape May. Early in the day, the Coast Guard said all seven crewmen got their suits on. Later, after interviewing Ariese, Carleton said they were not sure how many were able to don their suits . All seven had suits with them, Ariese said, but the four missing crewmen may not have had them on when the boat sank.

The suits are difficult to put on in the water and the chance for survival decreases since body heat is lost.

Steven L. Labov, chief of the U.S. Search and Rescue Task Force, has said expected survival time would be less than six hours in water as cold as it was when the Lady Mary went down.

People inside the dock’s restaurant, the Lobster House, dined on scallops Tuesday, not realizing how dangerous it is to deliver the succulent shellfish. Willie Smith, who retired after getting caught between two scallop dredges and needing back surgery, said it can be rough off Cape May. “I’ve been on boats that sank and caught fire,” he said. “It’s dangerous, for sure.”

    The Associated Press contributed to this report.

 E-mail Lynda Cohen: LCohen@pressofac.com

 E-mail Richard Degener: RDegener@pressofac.com

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