The well-known Newfoundland-based fishing vessel Atlantic Charger ran into trouble September 21, started taking on water and later sank off Resolution Island, near Frobisher Bay.
The crew of nine, which was fishing turbot at the time, abandoned ship and took to a life raft and were later picked up hours later by the Danish ship FV Pamiut, the Canadian military’s Joint Task Force Atlantic reported.
Resolution Island lies at the mouth of Frobisher Bay, about 300 kilometres southeast of Iqaluit. Initial reports from the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre put the ship about 140 kilometres northeast of Resolution Island, approximately 400 kilometres from Iqaluit.
Atlantic Charger owner Brad Watkins, who was not on the boat at the time, told the media the vessel’s captain and the crew used their training to calmly don survival suits and safely board their life-raft as their fishing vessel was taking on water.
“Their training shone through. They knew what they were doing.”
Rear Admiral John Newton, commander of Maritime Forces Atlantic, said the crew of the distressed vessel demonstrated their training during the rescue.
“They had survival suits, they knew how to wear them, they gave the right kind of information to the search and rescue centre. When the time came they made the really smart decision to abandon ship while they could do it in control,” he said.
He said the crew knew how to handle the life-raft and were able to haul in the gear being dropped to them from the Hercules aircraft.
A bulk ore carrier arrived on the scene provided protection from the waves as the Pamiuk drew alongside the life-raft and took the shivering men on board their zodiac. They were later transferred to the vessel Katsheshuk II which took the crew to Harbour Grace.
Watkins told media he is uncertain why his vessel started to take on water and eventually sank, but he added it was facing a ‘wall of water’ and rogue waves before it went down.
The Transportation Safety Board of Canada has sent a team to Newfoundland to look into the sinking.
Since the sinking, Watkins is questioning why a search and rescue helicopter wasn’t dispatched from Labrador to rescue the crew. He told the CBC that his crew members were disappointed and angry by the absence of a helicopter during the rescue.
“They wanna know where the chopper was. They asked me, ‘Where was the damn chopper,’ and I started asking questions,” Watkins told CBC’s The Broadcast.
“We got no life-saving equipment down there. We’ve got a lot of men on the water, a lot of seafarers, and if they go in the water, if there’s not another commercial vessel in the area then there’s not much hope.”
The 68.5-foot multi-species Atlantic Charger was launched in 2013 and was a state-of-the-art vessel.
It was equipped with a bulbous bow, a nozzle, fuel efficiency components and the first autopilot system of its kind to be featured on a Newfoundland and Labrador fishing boat.
The vessel also used NMEA 2000 gear onboard that hadn’t been used in the province yet and RSW, large fuel-capacity tanks, which fall under the new Transport Canada regulations and were a first for the way they were built. The ship had the first electronic twin disc transmission in the province as well as twin trawling capabilities.
Northern Peninsula Vessel Lost to Fire
RCMP in St. Anthony responded to a call September 18 of a fishing vessel that had caught fire at the Cook’s Harbour wharf on Newfoundland’s Northern Peninsula.
The Cook’s Harbour fire department and St. Anthony fire department were both on the scene when police arrived.
The fishing vessel Sylvia Lynn II caught fire, police say, around 5:30 p.m. Friday. The boat was vacant at the time.
Crews worked for several hours to extinguish the fire.
Police said the vessel eventually sunk near the wharf and the Canadian Coast Guard Environmental Response Unit was called to help in the cleanup effort.
RCMP is investigating the incident.
