And they said they never heard or saw anything to indicate they had hit another vessel.Īt 0046, the Coast Guard picked up a signal from Starbound’s EPIRB. The crew of Virgo said they never picked up on their radar any vessel that posed a threat of collision. He estimated that only a minute elapsed from the moment he awoke to the sound of yelling until he clambered into the liferaft. He managed to find and climb into the fishing boat’s liferaft. Starbound sank so quickly that only the captain was able to get clear of the vessel as it went down. Then the captain saw the bulbous bow of the approaching ship just before it struck his vessel. Moments before the collision, the captain was awakened by the yelling helmsman, who said that he had tried, but had been unable to avoid an oncoming ship. The two other crewmen were sleeping below. Until just before the accident, the captain had been sleeping in his cabin three steps down from the wheelhouse. The vessel was being steered by a crewman who possessed a 100-ton master’s license and had recently completed a radar observer’s course. The vessel’s radar was functioning, but its collision alarm was not activated, the captain told the Coast Guard. Starbound was headed northwest on autopilot at about 9 knots. 5 to 1 nm, according to the captain of Starbound. The operation of the T/V Virgo prior to the collision only (can) be characterized as gross negligence on the part of the crew on duty and the master of the ship that presented a significant danger to other vessels in the area,” Cornett stated.Īt the time of the collision, the seas were calm with patchy fog and visibility of about. “From all of the information available, there is no reasonable explanation of why the T/V Virgo failed to take measures necessary to prevent the collision. Cornett, assistant director for operations of the Coast Guard Investigative Service: The Coast Guard outlined its evidence against Virgo and the three crewmembers in an Aug. Pending the resolution of the extradition request, the three crew are free on bail in St. government has asked the Canadian government to extradite the three Russians to the United States. The second officer and lookout were on watch at the time of the collision. officials, Virgo was detained after it arrived at Come By Chance, Newfoundland.įollowing searches of the vessel and seizure of evidence, Canadian police arrested the three Russians – the master, the second officer and the lookout. The ship had left Boston and was bound for Newfoundland when Starbound was hit. Coast Guard has alleged that Virgo, a 541-foot Cypriot-flagged tanker with a Russian crew, hit and sank Starbound. Of the fishing boat’s four-man crew, only the captain survived. Starbound, an 83-foot, steel-hull trawler, was heading to Rockland, Maine, after fishing on Georges Bank, when it was struck about 130 miles off the Massachusetts coast at about 0100 on Aug.
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