Missing Fisherman

[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?

[Mike P]

Oil insulates an animal's coat. Diesel is the same viscosity (actually, the same stuff) as #2 fuel oil. It probably kept the dog's body temp high enough for it to survive.

[Karl F]

I would say any vessel would have had trouble, based on how the Ocean, Surf looked like at 7:30 or so, when I was there.
Looked like a lot of Cross Rips, Tons of big surf, and white water.. Funny thing, just a few miles North of there, it looked fairly calm
The backside, conditions can be very different, just a few miles apart tho. On and off autopilot, meybe they was catching a snooze