Coast Guard rules mayday call a hoax

JONESPORT — The U.S. Coast Guard has concluded that a distress call made Sunday by a mystery party identifying himself as being aboard a sinking dragger was a hoax that cost taxpayers money, and placed Coast Guard personnel at risk.

The Coast Guard suspended its two-day search at about 11 a.m. Monday, pending further developments. The search area included beaches on Great Wass, Fisherman and Crumple islands in Western Bay, and waters several miles off Jonesport. No trace was found of the alleged dragger Undertaker and its crew.

First Class Petty Officer Paul Longo, duty officer at Group Headquarters in Southwest Harbor, said a U.S. Coast Guard jet from Cape Cod, Mass., searched Monday morning up to three miles offshore at Jonesport. Also participating in the search Monday, while working on navigational aids, was the 180-foot Coast Guard buoy tender Spark of Portland.

A Coast Guard rescue helicopter, also from Cape Cod, arrived at 8:46 p.m. Sunday and searched several islands and Western and Eastern bays for about two hours.

“We knew weather conditions Sunday night were bad in the area of Fisherman and Crumple islands, but we had to go out. When we receive a call, it is not for us to question if that call is a hoax or not,” said Senior Chief Petty Officer Kim Brown, the station’s commander.

The temperature Sunday night was 4 degrees with a wind-chill factor of minus 43 degrees. Seas were 4 feet.

The station received the call at 5:55 p.m. Sunday, Chief Brown said. The male caller spoke in a calm voice saying his 42-foot dragger was taking on water over the stern and sinking. The man, who did not give his name, said he would try to beach the dragger on the east side of Crumple Island, located off the southwest tip of Great Wass Island. He said all those on board had survival suits.

Responding to the call, Petty Officer Bill Ballard and his crew of four left Jonesport Station in their 44-foot motor lifeboat at 6:08 p.m. for the one-hour ride to the east side of Crumple. The shorelines of Crumple and Fishermen islands and the south side of Great Wass were spotlighted. Then the search was widened to include Seal Island and Egg Rock. Many flares were used by the lifeboat’s crew.

After 4 inches of ice had accumulated on the lifeboat’s deck, hull and rigging, Ballard suspended his search at 9:35 p.m., but the helicopter crew continued working in the area.

Chief Brown said he suspects the mysterious mayday call was a hoax because his investigation during the search revealed that no fishing boat was reported overdue. A playback of the station’s telephone tape recordings revealed that the mystery boat captain had “very short responses” to questions put to him during the mayday call. And the caller calmly identified his dragger as the Undertaker, aka Bird of Maine, Brown said.

Kevin McKenna of Steuben called the station to report that his 32-foot dragger, Undertaker, was safe on its mooring at Pigeon Hill Bay.

Brown said “Sunday is normally a day of rest for fishermen in this area.” He suspects that “the first hoax of this nature in the last four years,” could have been originated by the owner of a boat that was cited as a result of boat safety inspections that were conducted within the past six weeks in the Jonesport-Beals region. “Someone may have had an ax to grind,” he said.

“The hearing officer always gives them (boat owners) time to correct the deficiencies. Ninety-five percent of the time, the cited fisherman brings in his gear or shows he has corrected his deficiencies. Those who get fined are usually three- or four-time offenders. The Coast Guard is not out to break the fishermen. We are trying to save lives,” the chief said.