Thursday, 4:30 PM
Rough seas stop police divers from searching downed fishing boat
By Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff
Six-foot waves on Nantucket Sound today have prevented State Police divers from continuing their search of the sunken Lady of Grace fishing boat for the remains of three crew members that have not yet been recovered.
Divers found the body of one of the four missing fisherman Monday in the wheelhouse of the 75-foot New Bedford-based vessel, which sank in about 50 feet of water about 12 miles north of Nantucket after it went missing on Friday. The divers were only able to search the wheelhouse because of leaking oil and other hazards and did not enter the other enclosed areas of the ship, according to State Police Sergeant Robert Bousquet.
The State Police dive team does intend to make future attempts to recover the remains, Bousquet said.
A commercial company with a larger boat that could withstand the six-foot swells was diving on the wreck today, according to Bousquet and Petty Officer Etta Smith, a spokeswoman for the Coast Guard.
The commercial dive company had been hired to close vents on the Lady of Grace to minimize leaking oil and other environmental hazards, Smith said. The commercial divers would not be searching the wreck for remains.
The Coast Guard also announced today that State Police divers found the Lady of Grace's emergency beacon lodged between the deck and the starboard bulwark. The beacon is designed to float free from a sinking ship and stay on the water’s surface to send an emergency signal. The Coast Guard said it never received an emergency signal from the Lady of Grace.
The Coast Guard has identified the missing fisherman as Rogerio Ventura, 54, Mario Farinhas, 62, John Da Silva, 50, and, Antonio Barroqueiro, 50.
