Collision course
Ask most fishermen what the most likely ways are to lose a boat and you’ll probably get flooding and fires as the top two answers. And that would match up with statistics that the Coast Guard has kept for fishing vessel casualties for the period 1992 to 2007 in all U.S. waters.
In those fifteen years, 685 boats were lost to flooding and 383 to fires. In fifth place (behind grounding with 310 boats and capsizing with182 boats) is collision (70 boats lost), which, I bet, is not something that most fishermen ever think will happen to them. In fact, I recently talked with someone that constantly deals with fishing vessel safety issues and when he looked at the record for collisions involving fishing boats in New England, his reaction was “Holy Smoke” after seeing that in 2008 there were 12 incidents. That was far more than he had expected. (Most of these didn’t involve major damage.)
That said, the reality of collisions has recently grabbed some East Coast media attention after the scalloper Dictator was rammed by a container ship off New Jersey on April 14, and the lobster boat The Misses sank on June 3 after it was hit by the 46-foot gillnetter Tenacious six miles off Phippsburg, Maine, on a clear, sunny day. In another New Jersey incident that is looking more and more like a collision, the scalloper Lady Mary went down with six crewmen on March 24.
Now, losing a boat and crew to a collision — while it might not be on most people’s mind — is nothing new for commercial fishermen.
Back in 1839, the Gloucester schooner Sevo was run down in the night by the steamer Huntress. The Captain got aboard the steamer, while “Winthrop Sargent, a lad of 12 years, crawled out to the end of the bowsprit, and as the vessel was going down, grasped a splitting table, which floated by, and by his cries attracted the attention of those on board the steamer who rescued him with much difficulty.” So reads the account in the “Fishermen’s Memorial & Record Book,” which was published in 1873 and is, in part, a record of the 281 boats and the 1,252 men lost from the port of Gloucester, Mass., between 1830 and July 1, 1873. Like all its entries, the book lists the men who went down with the Sevo: Richard Triton, Nathaniel Remby, Jonathan Osgood and James McDonald. It also gives the value of the schooner ($1,300) and what she was insured for ($1,150).
Numerous other entries for collisions are listed in this book as well as the “Fishermen’s Own Book,” which was printed in 1882 and records the 137 schooners lost and 997 men from Gloucester that were drowned between 1874 and 1882.
In a lot of those 19th century collision cases it was probably just a case of bad luck — being in the wrong place at the wrong time. A schooner that was anchored on the grounds or jogging with just a riding sail up would have a hard if not impossible chance of getting out of the way of a fast moving steamer or a full-rigged sailing ship flying all her canvas. And kerosene anchor or running lights were easily blown out in any wind.
The same can’t be said for today’s fishing boats. They have a very large number of electronic tools to avoid collisions: radar, AIS, alarms and radios. I suspect the primary reason fishing boats are run down (or hit another boat) is because neither the captain nor the crew thinks such a thing will ever happen to them. That, in turn, leads to what people today refer to as a lack of situational awareness, which is probably a behavioral psychologist’s fancy term for “not paying attention.”
It’s not such a smart idea to leave no one in the wheelhouse while you drop down to the fo’c’sle for a cup of coffee, go out on deck to help the gang with whatever it is they are doing, or read a magazine on your wheel turn. (In the interest of full disclosure, I have done all those things.)
To avoid an unexpected encounter with another boat, it would be a good idea to consider a few lines from the “Fishermen’s Own Book” about the schooner Guy Cunningham with 13 crewmen that was thought to have been run down in July 1881.
“The utmost precaution is necessary to avoid the dangers which a thick fog engenders, and the lookout’s position on board all vessels crossing the Banks, as well as on board the fisherman, is one of great responsibility.”

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