Seattle fishing boat sinks at sea; 4 dead, search continues for missing crewman

Shortly before 3 a.m. Sunday, the Coast Guard in Alaska got a chilling call from a Seattle-based fishing vessel out in the Bering Sea. "Mayday! Mayday! Mayday! ... We're flooding. Taking on water in our rudder room," said a crew member on the Alaska Ranger.

The 189-foot ship — a large factory trawler that has withstood decades of tough duty in Alaska waters — was in dire trouble. Though the seas were mild, the ship eventually would go down, claiming the lives of four of the 47-member crew and leaving another missing.

Among the dead was the vessel's skipper, Eric Peter Jacobsen, of Lynnwood. The others were chief engineer Daniel Cook, mate David Silveira and crewman Byron Carrillo, according to Fishing Co. of Alaska, owner of the ship.

The Coast Guard this morning identified the missing crew man as Satashi Konno of Japan, who served as fish master aboard the vessel. Konno, whose age was unknown, was wearing a survival suit. But even with the suit, water temperatures are at 36 degrees and that makes survival tough.

A Coast Guard cutter and two helicopters continued to search for him today.

Crew members donned survival suits shortly before 5 a.m. Sunday to buy time as they fled the ship into the frigid Bering Sea, according to the Coast Guard. Some made it into life rafts while others ended up bobbing in the water.

"When we got on scene there was a spread, at least a mile long, of 13 survivors in Gumby [survival] suits with strobe lights," said Coast Guard Aviation Survival Technician 2nd Class O'Brien Hollow, who was involved in air rescues. "I went down without disconnecting from the helicopter and picked them up one at a time."

An additional 22 crew members were scooped up by the Alaska Warrior, a sister ship to the Alaska Ranger, which then headed back to Dutch Harbor with the survivors.

One person fell into the water from a rescue basket as it was being lifted into a rescue helicopter, Coast Guard Lt. Eric Eggan said. It was not immediately clear if this was the missing crew member.

"It could be, but we're not sure," he said.

The helicopter was low on fuel and could not perform an immediate search, Eggan said. The incident is under investigation.

Other crew members remained on a second boat that was searching the area, about 120 miles west of Dutch Harbor. The bodies of the four dead crew members had been recovered.

The ship arrived about midnight at a private dock, where access to survivors was not allowed.

Coast Guard officials said that the joint rescue was an "incredible accomplishment" that prevented more loss of life. The Coast Guard plans to undertake a joint investigation with the National Transportation Safety Board into circumstance of the sinking of the Alaska Ranger, according to Mike Rosecrans, the Coast Guard chief of fishing vessel safety.

Few additional details of the events leading up the flooding were available. The swells were only about 6 to 8 feet at the time, although the Bering Sea is known to brew up fierce storms with waves cresting at 30 or even 40 feet.

"We do not have sufficient information to determine why the vessel foundered. We will do everything possible to find out what occurred, with the hope that something can be learned that will be of value to our fishing community," the company said.

Jacobsen, the 66-year-old captain, would have done everything possible to get others off the ship, according to his stepson, Scott Jacobsen, 33, who lives in Bothell.

"My father has always said that a good captain always makes sure he is the last soul off the boat.

"He said if there is still a person left on the boat, he would go down with the boat trying to get that person off. He was an honorable captain and would make sure everyone was off. He had no qualms about going down with the boat and making sure everyone was evacuated."

Jacobsen said his father was a third-generation fisherman who would spend eight or nine months a year at sea. He was meticulous and a dedicated skipper who in his time ashore liked to rebuild cars and walk the family dog.

Scott Jacobsen said his father urged him to consider a career other than fishing, suggesting instead he should join the carpenters union.

"I was all set to follow in his footsteps," Scott Jacobsen said, but his dad ultimately won out, convincing him that there wasn't much money in fishing anymore.

The Alaska Ranger was heading out to catch mackerel, said Mike Szymanski, a company official. Given the time of day, most of the crew probably would have been asleep when trouble started, Szymanski said.

Jacobsen, Cook and Silveira were the top-tier leaders on the boat, and thus would have been responsible for organizing the evacuation and would have been the last to flee, Szymanski said.

State environmental regulators were notified that the ship was carrying 145,000 gallons of diesel when it sank in deep seas, according to Leslie Pearson, emergency response manager for the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation.

According to initial reports, an oil sheen covered an area of a quarter mile by a half mile, Coast Guard spokesman Ray Dwyer said. The strong winds made any cleanup effort unlikely, but those conditions would disperse a spill much more quickly than calm weather, Pearson said.

Fishing in Alaska has long been a perilous occupation. But in recent years, the deaths have declined, averaging about 11 a year over the past half-decade compared to more than 35 a year back in the early 1980s.

The Alaska Ranger was built in 1973. It is one of seven vessels operated by Seattle-based Fishing Co. of Alaska. The company was founded in 1985 and owned by Karena Adler, of Mercer Island.

The ship is part of the "head-and-gut" fleet that scoops up yellowfin sole, mackerel and other fish in trawl nets, then processes and freezes the catch on board.

Company officials and others in the tightly knit fishing communities both in Seattle and Alaska are mourning the loss of life.

"We can replace our boat — but we can't replace the soul, the spirit of those guys that have been working for us for all these years," said Szymanski. "Our main concern now is to take care of the surviving crew and the families that have been impacted by this."

Szymanski said there was no indication of any problems with the vessel before it left Dutch Harbor. Szymanski said Adler keeps in close contact with crews — talking with skippers at port and emphasizing safety.

"Every time one of our boats leaves, she assumes responsibility to ensure that they are going to come home," Szymanski said. "This is just tough, tough to figure out."

The Fishing Co. of Alaska has had its past problems.

In December, one of the company's vessels, the 185-foot Alaska Patriot, was damaged by a fire while in Dutch Harbor, according to KIAL radio in Alaska. All crew members got safely off the boat; some were treated with oxygen at the scene.

In 1995, a fire aboard another of its boats, the Alaska Spirit, while the ship was moored in Alaska killed the master of the vessel and caused damage estimated at $3 million. The fire prompted the National Transportation Safety Board to issue a series of safety recommendations to 250 domestic fishing and processing ships.

In 1998, the company lost another vessel, the 198-foot Alaska-1, which sank after it collided with a freighter about 34 miles north of Dutch Harbor. All 33 members of that vessel abandoned ship and were rescued without injury or loss of life.

In 2006, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration levied a fine of $254,000 against the fishing vessel, Alaska Juris, and the Fishing Co. of Alaska, which managed the vessel. NOAA said the companies had interfered with fishing observers — tampering with or destroying their equipment; failing to provide them a safe work area; and failing to tell them when fish were coming aboard so they could sample the catch.

Coast Guard documents indicate that since 1992 there have been at least nine injuries reported aboard the Alaska Ranger. Records of all nine incidents were not immediately available, but four involved cut or crushed fingers and hands. In a fifth case, an employee was struck by an object while on deck hauling in a net and ended up with a fractured neck.

Seattle Times staff reporter Mark Rahner and researchers Justin Mayo and David Turim contributed to this report. Hal Bernton, 206-464-2581 or hbernton@seattletimes.com. Nick Perry, 206-515-5639.