Two Dead, Four Missing as Fishing Boat Sinks Off N.J.

Photos courtesy of Andrew Mills/The Star-Ledger

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) - A fishing boat sank in rough seas off New Jersey on Tuesday morning, killing at least two people and leaving four missing in the icy ocean as relatives gathered at the water's edge to pray for their safe return.
One crew member was already dead and a second was critically ill when rescuers arrived where the Lady Mary—a 71-foot scallop boat based at Cape May in southern New Jersey and owned by a North Carolina man—sank with seven people aboard about 75 miles off the coast. The second crew member died later Tuesday.

A third crew member was conscious and alert when he was plucked with the other two from the water by a helicopter. Two helicopters, an airplane and two boats swept a 225-square-mile area of the Atlantic Ocean for the remaining people.
All seven crew members were wearing cold-water survival suits, the Coast Guard said, but it was not clear how long they could hold out in the 40-degree water, with the air temperature at 33 degrees.
At the dock where the Lady Mary was based, about two dozen relatives and friends of the fishermen held hands and prayed.
"God, we pray for a miracle," said Marcia Janifer, whose sister is engaged to Roy Smith Jr., one of the men she said was missing Tuesday afternoon. She described Smith Jr. as "shy but funny."
Smith's father, Roy Smith Sr. of Bayboro, N.C., owned the boat, said Clara Burkhardt, office manager of the Cold Springs Fish and Supplies, which bought seafood from the elder Smith. He was on his way from home to Cape May by Tuesday afternoon, she said.
An hour after receiving a transmission at 7:30 a.m. from an emergency radio beacon, a Coast Guard helicopter found three crew members in the water near an empty life raft bobbing in the ocean. They were taken to a hospital, where one was pronounced dead and a second died later, the Coast Guard said.
The third rescued crew member was able to tell authorities that all seven members of the crew donned lifesaving suits "and abandoned ship" for a reason he didn't specify, said Petty Officer Andrew Kendrick.
Waves were 4 to 7 feet high when the boat sank, Kendrick said. Searching for the missing boaters were two helicopters and an airplane from Coast Guard stations in Elizabeth City, N.C., and Atlantic City, as well two boats from Cape May.
Cape May trails only Gloucester, Mass., on the East Coast in terms of tons of fish brought ashore each year, Mayor Edward Mahaney said.
Commercial fishermen all know they could be lost at sea someday, Janifer said.
"It is a known possibility," she said. "They are well aware of the danger you could get in out there."

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