Westerly News
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INSIDE THIS WEEK:
BACK TO SCHOOL in Tofino & Ucluelet (including tips for getting enough rest, and the Wick Inn Pro Am!) PAGE 3-6
ON THE MONEY: Vote for West Coast artist Laura Timmermans to design a coin PAGE 2
SIMRS, volunteers work to help sea stars PAGE 10
Good season so far for Park PAGE 6
Big Daddy’s Fish Fry makes the Food & DIning Guide PAGE 16 Monday Night Movie on the Arts & Rec Guide PAGE 15
Westerly LIFE 7-10 The BEAR FACTS
September 9, 2015 Wednesday
Serving Tofino and Ucluelet
$1.25 [INCLUDING TAX]
SINKING OF THE CALEDONIAN
TRAGEDY AT SEA
Survivor and skipper spent hours atop capsized fishing vessel JACKIE CARMICHAEL
Westerly News
Before the Caledonian went all the way down, two fishermen from the four-member crew clung to the capsized vessels for hours into Saturday evening, on the West Coast north of Tofino. Only one of them was wearing a life vest – and it saved his life. He alone survived when the West Coast dragger sank to the bottom like a stone, more than six hours after it first capsized in the chilly waters 30 miles west of the entrance to Nootka Sound. Notes pieced together from the recollections of the survivor tell a harrowing tale. Colin Henthorne was the marine rescue co-ordinator on duty at the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre on Sunday morning. He summarized Saturday’s tragic events for the Westerly News. There were four fishermen altogether, including the skipper. It was cloudy; fishermen a few dozen miles away reported six-foot swells in the
Three fishermen died in the Sept. 5, 2015 sinking of the Caledonian (shown here in a file photo) in the waters off Tofino.
File photos of the Caledonian, courtesy Hillel Wright/FisheryNation.com
area. The crew of the Caledonian had one “bag” of fish on board. When they brought a second netful of fish aboard, the vessel started to list significantly, finally keeling over on its side at approximately 3 or 3:30 p.m.
The skipper and the deck hand managed to clamber, apparently uninjured, atop the partly submerged vessel, where they spent some cold, wet hours. “The other two were trapped under the hull,” Henthorne said.
The body of one of the two drowned fishermen floated to the surface at approximately 10 p.m. According to the notes, that’s about the time the vessel terribly and finally sank to See TRAGEDY AT SEA, Page 6