Missing Fisherman

[Joe]

Check the bars.

[macojoe]

Thats good news, they are saying just now that one was found and one was still missing. (channel 5) Man I bet that was a dam cold swim!

[macojoe]

BOSTON -- The Coast Guard now says two fishermen from Maine who abandoned their vessel after it ran aground off Cape Cod managed to swim to shore.

One of the men, Michael Darragh, was found on Coast Guard Beach in Eastham early Monday morning and taken to a hospital for treatment of severe hypothermia.

Several hours later, Coast Guard spokeswoman Kelly Turner said the second man, Ian Orchard, was found by members of the Eastham fire department in an unused Coast Guard station where he had apparently gone to stay warm. His condition isn't known.

A dog also made it to shore after the accident.


Turner said the Josephine's home port of Stonington, Maine called at about 4:40 a.m. to report that the vessel was taking on water.

[Karl F]

Fishermen ran aground on Coast Guard Beach
EASTHAM - Two Maine scallopers escaped with their lives after their ship ran aground in the pounding surf at Coast Guard Beach in Eastham about 4 a.m.

The two-man crew on the Josephine, a 40-foot scalloper, had left their home port in Stonington, Me. yesterday at 9 a.m. to return to Stage Harbor, Chatham. They had been running, on and off, on autopilot.

In the dark this morning, they suddenly found their boat in the 38-degree rough surf at the base of the Coast Guard Station on a cliff above the popular beach in the Cape Cod National Seashore. Skipper Ian Orchards, 32, of Stonington, had time to send a quick mayday at 4:15 a.m. before he and Michael Darragh, 34, from East Orland, Me. jumped into the eight-foot waves. There was no time to don survival suits.

At 4:20 a.m., Eastham Police Sgt. Robert Schnitzer’s spotlight found Darragh, wandering on the beach. For the next few hours, there was no sign of Orchards as a flood of rescuers from Eastham, Wellfleet, Orleans, and Chatham fire departments, including two four-wheel drive vehicles, a helicopter from Air Station Cape Cod and two rescue boats from the Coast Guard in Chatham searched by air, land and sea. At 8:20 a.m., rescuers did a second search of the Coast Guard station, directly above the Josephine. A window was broken.

Inside was Orchards, who had taken a shower to try to get warmer. He came to the door, wrapped in a curtain.

Both fishermen, both hypothermic, were taken to Cape Cod Hospital. Both are expected to survive. The two brothers-in-law have fished these waters before, a friend said this morning.

Another survivor is their pug dog, covered with diesel fuel, and found wandering on the beach, according to police at a press conference at 8:45 a.m..

By that time, the Josephine’s wood, covered by fiberglas, was a complete and total wreck. The surf had splintered its wood covered by fiberglas into pieces no bigger than 10 by 10 feet.

A smell of diesel lingered near the wreck on the beach in the Cape Cod National Seashore. The National Park Service planned to clean-up when the tide ebbs.

Read more about the accident later today and in tomorrow’s Cape Cod Times.

[Raven]

what a way to start the season.... such a sad loss...

glad they both made it....and the diesel pug dog too... poor thing
musta had a tuff time with them little leggies swimmin to shore...
in 8 foot waves....

[Mike P]

The diesel probably saved the dog's life.

[likwid]

Any word on what exactly happened?
Engine eat it?
Asleep with the autopilot on?

[JFigliuolo]

Originally Posted by Mike P

The diesel probably saved the dog's life.

Huh? How's that?