After refitting his longliner in the winter of 1994/95, Skipper Bob Stacey from St. Lawrence had a brand-new boat ready for the 1995 fishing season on the south coast of Newfoundland.
The Jessie Marie was even five feet longer than before the refit. One of the main reasons for the upgrade was to make the vessel suitable for scallop fishing.
Bob and his two-man crew fished the Jessie Marie for several months after the refit and for the most part, things went fairly well, but during a scallop trip in October 1995, something went horribly wrong. This is Part II of It Must Have Been Really Quick.
Despite a few glitches that were considered normal after a big refit, Bob Stacey and his crew figured they had most of the kinks ironed out of the all-new Jessie Marie by the fall of 1995. Overall, the 31-year-old skipper felt the expensive refit that made his vessel more diverse was a good business decision in light of the continuing moratorium on cod fishing.
By early October, the Jessie Marie had made five scallop-fishing trips. By then, Bob, Hughie Rennie and Trent Doyle, all young men, were growing comfortable in their new fishery and Bob planned the sixth scallop trip for October 11, 1995.
In fact, he knew exactly where he was going to drop the rake for his first tow, so he strategically prepared to leave St. Lawrence just before midnight on October 10. That way, the Jessie Marie would arrive on the grounds near an area called Hodge’s Rocks at daybreak when they could start fishing and not waste any time steaming when they could be fishing.
A day or two before the scheduled departure date, Hughie called Bob to say that he needed to sit out this trip. Hughie was suffering from a back injury that was slowly improving, but his doctor advised him to rest another week before taking on the very physically demanding job of three or four consecutive days scallop fishing.
Bob’s sister’s common-law husband, 25-year old Scott Walker, accepted the offer to replace Rennie on the trip.
Just past 10 p.m. on Tuesday night, October 10, the Jessie Marie was rounding Cape Chapeau Rouge at the entrance to St. Lawrence harbour heading for the scallop grounds.
Weather conditions were just about ideal, not only on Tuesday night, but favourable weather was expected for the next several days giving Bob, Scott and Trent reason for optimism. The plan was to fish from daylight to dark for two whole days and return to port on Friday morning, October 13.
The Jessie Marie arrived on the scallop grounds southwest of Lamaline on Wednesday morning as scheduled, but catch rates were disappointing.
Bob called the skipper of the scalloper Aubrey & Paul III about 9 a.m. The two friends discussed their situations and determined the Aubrey & Paul III was southwest of Fortune Head, approximately nine miles west of the Jessie Marie and according to the skipper they were enjoying reasonably good catches.
He suggested that Bob should steam to the same area. Bob replied that he would probably do that. When the Jessie Marie didn’t show up by noon, the skipper of the Aubrey & Paul III thought it was strange that Bob hadn’t been in touch, but then he assumed that fishing had improved for the crew of the Jessie Marie and they were enjoying good catches and too busy for idle chit chat.
Meanwhile back on shore, family and friends of the crew of the Jessie Marie were not particularly concerned about the lack of contact on Wednesday and Thursday.
Bob was not one to spend a lot of time on the VHF Radio checking in with hourly or even daily updates, so nobody was overly concerned. However, when the vessel didn’t arrive at the dock on Friday afternoon, a few people started wondering why Bob hadn’t called to say why they were late.
Bob’s dad Pierce Stacey was fine until he went to a local store where he saw Scott Walker’s mother who worked there. Mrs. Walker expressed her concern about her son and the crew, but Pierce tried to calm her worries.
“I told her that the boys probably were doing good with fishing and decided to stay a bit longer to make it an extra good trip,” Pierce says.
However, Pierce changed his mind when Bob’s regular crewman, Hughie Rennie, called a short time later.
“Hughie had fished with Bob for some time and he knew what to expect more than I did, especially at the scallop fishery. He said, ‘Pierce they’re overdue and I think you should contact the Coast Guard because this is a long time without any word.’”
Hughie’s somber tone of voice made Pierce realize that something may have gone wrong.
“So, I called the Coast Guard — Roger Slaney was on duty and I asked Roger to try and contact the Jessie Marie for me. Roger called me back about 15 minutes later and said he was unable to contact the boys. That’s when I asked him to issue a distress call and get things on the go.”
Sea conditions were fine and visibility was good, so an air and sea search was commenced right away.
Because the Jessie Marie was believed to be near the French islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon, marine authorities there were also notified.
The French said the missing vessel had not entered any ports there during the previous few days. The air and sea search included several local fishing vessels — most of them crewed by friends of Bob, Trent and Scott.
There was no debris sighted which indicated the vessel was not in a collision with another ship or had struck rocks. The search continued for several days covering 8,000 square miles, but the weather and sea conditions deteriorated on October 15 and the search was downgraded. The matter was turned over to the RCMP as a missing persons case on October 16.
On October 19, the RCMP in St. Lawrence received a call from the authorities in St. Pierre reporting that a body had been discovered on the beach at Cape Blanc on the western side of Miquelon near then tip of the island.
The body was identified as being that of 25-year-old Scott Walker. That sad news dashed the hopes of finding any survivors. A buoy that had always been stored, unsecured, in the fish hold of the Jesse Marie was found on November 2 near Paradise Sound in Placentia Bay. No other debris was found and no other bodies were ever recovered.
With no survivors, no debris and not even a mayday, investigators didn’t have a lot of evidence to work with in trying to piece together what happened to the Jessie Marie.
Like almost everyone else close to the three fishermen, Pierce Stacey thinks his son’s vessel sank on October 11, shortly after the one and only communication from the stricken vessel on the first morning on the fishing grounds when Bob chatted with the skipper of the Aubrey & Paul III.
Pierce thinks Bob may have decided to follow his friend’s suggestion to move west to the vicinity of his friend’s vessel and drag for scallop there. Because there was very little wind or sea, it’s unlikely the Jessie Marie simply sprang a leak and sank because there would have been time to issue a mayday.
Some fishermen say it’s more likely the scallop drag became snagged and pulled the longliner down quickly.
Pierce Stacey is inclined to agree. “Whatever it was, it must have happened really quick,” he says.
A music group known as Black Ice recorded a musical tribute to the loss of the Jessie Marie and all three crewmembers.
The following are the last several verses of Sail On Home, Jessie Marie.
…Nine days had gone by since leaving her berth
All hope became fear and all of its worth
And then on some beach in the neighbouring French Isle
A body was found: Did the sea reconcile
A few anxious hours until it was told
The body of Walker the sea did unfold
The hope that turned fear was reality
The search is now ended for the Jessie Marie
The whole of the coast was filled with despair
The Jessie Marie had gone down there somewhere
And with her three sons from within the same town
Untimely and swiftly real answers aren’t found
On October twenty-second in God’s Holy Place
Hundreds of people converged without haste
To pray and respect as tears filled their eyes
The task to ecumenically memorialize
A tribute is this that you hear for a while
To Captain Bob Stacey, Scott Walker, Trent Doyle
Their ages are written yes respectively
Thirty-one, 25 and a mere 23
We know that it hasn’t and never will be
The only time some souls are lost out at sea
Like the memories held by those three families
So are the boats that have gone down to the sea…
