800 attend service for drowned fishermen

GLOUCESTER, Mass. – Like many of the fishermen who had come before them and those who will come after, James Sanfilippo, Thomas Frontiero and Joseph Marcantonio grew up in Gloucester going to St. Ann’s Church.

On Saturday about 800 people crammed into the church to remember Sanfilippo, Frontiero, and Mark Doughty of Yarmouth, Maine, – the three men who drowned when their fishing boat sank 130 miles off Cape Ann after an apparent collision on Sunday, Aug. 5.

Marcantonio, 35, the boat’s skipper, was the only survivor. He attended the service but was unable to speak, event organizers said.

“What courage, what valor, what tremendous sense of self-sacrifice fills this church of St. Ann’s,” said Cardinal Bernard Law, who led the memorial Mass.

A private memorial service for Sanfilippo and Frontiero was held afterward.

David Lane, 29, of Gloucester worked with Frontiero. Speaking after the Mass, he remembered how Frontiero would shadowbox and jump rope in front of the town’s Man at the Wheel memorial.

“He was one of the strongest men I ever knew,” Lane said. “He was like Rocky Balboa. He’s as strong as an ape. He had to go down unconscious or he’d still be treading water.”

Mike Julian of Gloucester remembered Frontiero’s generosity.

“Tommy had a big heart,” he said, recalling how he once sent $100 to feed children in Ethiopia when he had little money for himself.

“He never said a bad word about anyone – even his enemies,” Julian said.

Joseph Sanfilippo, brother of James Sanfilippo, thanked the community for the outpouring of support. “These three men were very, very special and they will be especially missed,” he said after the Mass. The service was organized by Gloucester Fishermen’s Wives Association.

The day of the crash, members unveiled a memorial dedicated to the women of Gloucester – and other fishing communities – who have lost brothers, husbands and fathers at sea.

On Friday, about 200 friends and family members of Sanfilippo gathered at a graveside service for him in Thomaston, Maine, where he lived.

Marcantonio survived because he dove off the Rockland, Maine-based Starbound just after Sanfilippo, 36, shouted that a collision was imminent.

Sanfilippo’s body was recovered. Doughty, 33, and Frontiero, 40, reportedly were asleep below deck when the boat was hit, and are missing and presumed dead.