LOST IN MISTY BLUE
TWO MISSING OFF NANTUCKET AS SEARCH CALLED OFF IN FISHING VESSEL TRAGEDY
‘I just lost my hope ... It’s done.’ — TAMMY ROBERTS, FISHERMAN’S WIFE
NEW BEDFORD — The heartbroken wife of a missing fisherman said she “lost hope” last night when she received the call she’d been dreading — the Coast Guard was suspending its search for her husband and another man who were lost at sea when their boat sank in the waters off Nantucket.
“They just called to tell me the search has been suspended,” Tammy Roberts told the Herald through tears. “They said the seas are too rough ... when they told me that, I lost hope. I just lost my hope ... It’s done.”
Roberts said Eric Arabian, the captain of the Misty Blue — a 69-foot clam fishing vessel out of New Bedford — said her husband, Michael Roberts, was below deck in the galley when a torrent of water swamped the boat Monday night.
“He was in the galley, and he said the galley flooded right up, and he never got out,” Roberts said. “I don’t even know what to say ... It’s just terrible.”
Roberts described her husband as “very quiet, very laid-back.”
“He’s a mellow, kindhearted guy with a very big heart,” she said.
The U.S. Coast Guard announced they called off the search after scouring a 1,605-nautical-square-mile area but could not find the men.
Just hours earlier the state police said the department’s dive team “located a large object underwater,” believed to be the Misty Blue, approximately 10 miles off Nantucket.
The divers used sidescan sonar — which creates a picture of the sea floor — to spot the vessel, state police said. Rough seas will keep the divers away from the area until tomorrow, state police spokesman David Procopio added.
The waters where the search is taking place was described by a meteorologist with the National Weather Service as “a very unstable sea state.”
Winds off Nantucket were 35 mph last night and getting stronger, while waves topped 7 feet and were rising, said Stephanie Dunten, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Taunton.
Two fishing boats — the Enterprise and the Mariette — assisted in the search along with three Coast Guard cutters, a Jayhawk helicopter, an Ocean Sentry aircraft, and teams from Cape Cod law enforcement.
The 69-foot, steel-hulled Misty Blue rolled over and sank Monday night 10 miles off Nantucket at approximately 6:30 p.m. while the crew was harvesting surf clams.
The missing crew members were identified by the boat’s owner Atlantic Capes Fisheries as the 44-year-old Roberts and Jonathan Saraiva, 32.
Arabian, 44, and crewman Colby McMullen, 22, were rescued by a private fishing boat.
Danny Cohen, owner of Atlantic Capes Fisheries, told the Herald, “We don’t know why the vessel sank. The Coast Guard is on the scene doing the investigation. The captain and the crew are on board (with the CG) and we have not had the chance to talk to them.”
Vessel manager Chad Brayton said yesterday conditions were “beautiful,” noting there were four other vessels fishing near the Misty Blue when it sank.
“All we know, I last contacted the vessel at 3, the trip was going along fine, we were expecting them in this morning and we began getting calls around 6,” he said.
Roberts has worked on the Misty Blue for a long time, Brayton said, adding he just learned Roberts did not know how to swim — a fact he said “surprised” him, but, he noted, “swimming isn’t really needed on the deck of the boat.”
Brayton described Roberts as a “quiet, easygoing man.”
The Misty Blue left Fairhaven headed for Nantucket Shoals at 9 p.m. Saturday to harvest surf clams.
The boat, built in 1996, was imperiled two years ago when, according to the Coast Guard, the Misty Blue became trapped in ice in Quicks Hole Passage north of Woods Hole. The Coast Guard freed them and the clam boat continued on its way without incident.