OTTAWA – The situation seemed dire for the Atlantic Destiny crew. A fire first interrupted the power aboard the scallop trawler and then water started to enter. More than 130 miles from its home port in Nova Scotia, the 144-foot-long ship was hopelessly rocking up and down in waves 40 to 80 feet high.
But while Atlantic Destiny finally sank, a joint rescue effort from Canada and the United States meant that all 32 of its crew were rescued before it sank.
“The weather was probably one of the worst times when I actually performed a lifting operation,” said the commander. David McCown, pilot of a United States Coast Guard helicopter that rescued 13 crew members from the ship.
The rescue effort began when Atlantic Density sent a distress call on Tuesday because of the fire. Ships from the United States and the Canadian Coast Guard were dispatched; the Royal Canadian Air Force sent two rescue helicopters and a Nova Scotia plane, while another pair of helicopters and a plane took off from a United States Coast Guard base on Cape Cod.
Commander Aaron O’Brien, the leading officer of a Canadian Coast Guard ship, Cape Roger, traveled overnight to reach the sinking trawler. He advanced for about 11 hours, flogged by crosswinds at up to 145 kilometers per hour, sailing upwind across rough seas that he would normally cross at a nearby walking pace. There was no time to lose.
“In a case like this, every moment counts,” said Commander O’Brien. “So, we were hammered as much as possible.”
The Canadian Air Force arrived first and completed the dangerous task of throwing two search and rescue technicians onto the sinking fishing vessel. While one was preparing the crew for evacuation, the other was working to reduce the water intake of the ship.
The rescue began by lifting crew members placed in a rescue basket on a helicopter, a maneuver that had to be coordinated with the huge waves of the ocean. Commander McCown said pilots and their crews used night vision goggles to keep an eye on the waves, sometimes at the height of an apartment building, throughout the process.
As the fishing vessel’s crew managed to stay on board and out of the icy water, Commander McCown said they were in good shape, although very shaken.
When his helicopter reached its weight limit with 13 crew members from the sinking ship, he immediately made the long flight back to Nova Scotia. When he landed, he estimated that there was only enough fuel left for another 40 minutes of flight.
Two other helicopters rescued another 15.
A helicopter was left behind, while the two Canadian Army search and rescue technicians and four Atlantic Destiny crew members remained on the sinking ship in an effort to rescue it by pumping water.
But on Wednesday morning, they also decided it was time to leave.
Canadian Air Force captain Malcolm Grieve began trying to recover the remaining six in an effort that proved to be complicated. When his helicopter lowered a steel cable to start the process, the cable wrapped around a ship’s rail and had to be released immediately. As a result, all his crew was able to do was put down some rescue boats and first aid supplies and wait for Corporal Roger to arrive after his night-long journey.
It appeared around 7:30 in the morning.
The last people on board, including the captain, descended a rope ladder in an inflatable boat sent from the Coast Guard ship around 8 am. Two and a half hours later, the Atlantic density sank.
“It was a total relief for my shoulders,” said Commander O’Brien of the successful rescue. “I am very grateful that we can help someone in danger and that we can really be there in the right place at the right time.”