Alaska boat sinking survivor: From ‘sleeping to swimming’
JUNEAU, Alaska — A survivor of a Alaska crab boat sinking that left five fellow fishermen missing said the crew went from “sleeping to swimming” in minutes as rough seas and ice threatened to sink their vessel on New Year’s Eve.
“On the 31st, we just started listing really hard on the starboard side,” Dean Gribble Jr. said in a YouTube video that he posted Thursday to answer questions about the disaster. “From sleeping to swimming was about 10 minutes. It happened really fast. Everybody was trying to get out. Everybody was doing everything they could, and it was just really a (expletive) situation.”
Gribble, who’s appeared on the Discovery Channel documentary series “Deadliest Catch,” said the sevenmember crew faced 20foot seas, 40 mph winds and icy conditions.
“I’ve fished for 20 years, I know that you do not make it,” he said. “Everybody can die in those situations, and I knew that’s what we were going into. We were in the raft for about five hours.”
Gribble and John Lawler were the only survivors and suffered hypothermia, the
Coast Guard said. They had told rescuers that they were the only ones to make it into a life raft and had been able to get into survival suits, the Anchorage Daily News reported. The suits offer some flotation and hypothermia protection.
“I just wish the other guys would have made it,” Gribble said in the video, shaking his head and looking down. “I kind of feel bad now that I’m here and they’re not. Send some love to their families.”
Some of the fishermen made calls to loved ones in the lead-up to the sinking that also revealed the rough conditions, including ice that did not seem to rattle the captain.
Gary Cobban Jr. is among five fishermen who are feared dead after the 130-foot Scandies Rose sank late Tuesday in an area with warnings about strong winds and heavy freezing spray, officials said. The Coast Guard has not released details on a cause.
Cobban’s ex-girlfriend, Jeri Lynn Smith, told the Anchorage Daily News that he called her in North Carolina about two hours before the boat sank to wish her a happy new year.
“When I talked to him, he told me the boat was icing and it had a list to it, but he didn’t sound alarmed. He didn’t sound scared,” Smith said. “The boat ices. The boat ices every winter. It’s just something they deal with. I didn’t worry about it.”
Also missing are the captain’s son, David Lee Cobban, Arthur Ganacias, Brock Rainey and Seth Rousseau-Gano, the Coast Guard said. The agency used helicopters, planes and a boat to search for the men over 1,400 square miles before calling off the effort Wednesday evening.
Crabbing boats endure perilous conditions in Alaska waters that have been immortalized in “Deadliest Catch.”
Commercial fishing is one of the country’s most dangerous occupations, according to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. It said there were 179 deaths in Alaska fisheries between 2000 and 2014, the most recent numbers available.
David Otness, a retired crab fisherman in Cordova, Alaska, who spent more than 50 years in the industry, agreed it’s dangerous work that’s “known for its loss.” He said it appeals to people with a sense of adventure.
“The love of it is stronger than the fear of it. It’s something that gets into you. It’s all-consuming,” Otness said.