October 28, 2013 — Crews from the U.S. Coast Guard and the Rockport harbormaster’s office pulled two fishermen from the waters of the Atlantic late Friday night after their 65-foot fishing vessel took on water and sank roughly 3 miles off Rockport’s Thacher Island.
U.S. Coast Guard officials Sunday declined to identify the fishermen, who had been working aboard the 48-year-old dragger Terra Nova when the boat suddenly began taking on water sometime around 8:30 p.m. Friday.
As the boat was going down, the fishing crew members abandoned ship, according to Coast Guard reports. But a helicopter based out of Coast Guard Air Station Cape Cod was able to locate the fishermen in the water, lift one into the copter and transport him to Massachusetts General Hospital, while the second fisherman was pulled into the Rockport harbormaster’s boat, then taken to Coast Guard Station Gloucester and transported from there to Addison Gilbert Hospital.
There remained no word Sunday regarding the condition of the fisherman who was taken by the Coast Guard to Mass. General; Rockport Harbormaster Scott Story said Sunday that the fisherman he transported to Coast Guard Station Gloucester was “conscious, alert, oriented — and very happy to see me.” But there was also no update regarding his condition as of Sunday afternoon.