Fishing boat capsizes at sea: two drown, one lives
'If only those guys could have held out five minutes more...'
By Don Gronning, Forks Forum, February 23, 1994
FORKS -- "If those guys could have held out five minutes more, they'd have made it," William Caldwell said. "Just five minutes more."
Caldwell, 38, was the sole survivor of a commercial fishing boat that capsized in open seas Saturday morning. Mark Abraham and Bob Charles drowned in the mishap. "That's about how long it was from when they quit moving until the helicopter picked me up."
Caldwell told his harrowing story from a bed at Forks Community Hospital, where he was taken after being plucked out of the February sea by a Coast Guard helicopter 36 miles west of LaPush. He was in the water over an hour-and-a-half.
The Coast Guard was alerted by an emergency position indicating radio beacon at 10:43 a.m. They dispatched a helicopter from Astoria, Ore., and picked him up at 12:12 p.m.
Waves started coming onto deck
The trio had fished through the night after leaving Westport about noon Friday on the drag boat Patsy B, a fairly new craft, said Caldwell. The boat was registered to Mike Restoule of Astoria, according to a Coast Guard spokesperson in Seattle. Caldwell is from Westport.
He said the boat was making a turn to the left and leaning, as is usual, when waves started coming over the stern onto the deck.
"I figured the water would run off and the boat would right itself," he said. "I was inside the wheelhouse at the time. The next thing I know, the water is coming into the cabin. The water knocked me back and the boat flipped upside down. I thought this was it."
He was disorientated, he said, but made it to an air pocket on what was then the uppermost part of the upside-down boat, the floor.
"I found the air pocket and looked around and could see it getting smaller and smaller," he said. "Then I saw a light under the water.
The light was the open galley door and he swam through it towards the surface. Caldwell estimates he was 20 or 30 feet down by that time and it was all he could do to make it to the surface.
"I couldn't hold my breath any longer," he said. "I hit the surface and spit foam and water. I saw the other two standing on the boat and they were telling me to get on the boat with them. I kept trying but couldn't get any closer. I guess as it was rising and falling, it was pushing me away. I kicked off my rubber boots so I could kick better, but I was getting weaker and weaker."
Had to swim away from boat to avoid being sucked down
He never made it onto the boat because it started sinking and he started swimming away to avoid being sucked down with the boat.
"It didn't take three minutes until it was gone," he said. "I've never seen a boat sink so fast."
After the boat sank, the other two were about 100 yards away, he said, and kept telling him to kick to them.
"It took me 20 minutes to get to them and we tied off together," he said. They had deck board, floats and two life rings they made into a raft. None of the three were wearing a survival suit or lifejacket.
Talked, prayed to keep each other going
"Finally, we couldn't hold on to the deck boards anymore and it broke up," he said. The three were in the water over an hour, he said. They tried to talk to each other to keep one another going.
"We were praying to God out loud and stuff," he said. "Then all of a sudden those guys couldn't comprehend anything and quit talking back. It was weird."
Caldwell tried to keep his partners alive, but their strength was failing.
"I'm trying to hold both their heads up and it ain't working," he said. "One guy went under three times."
Caldwell was almost pulled under by one of the drowning men.
"Bob tried to grab for the life ring and he put me down," he said. The men's time was running out.
"I grabbed the one guy, who was about two feet down, and pulled him up," he said. "Then I looked at Bob and he was floating face down in the water. I reached over and put him on his back, but he was spitting foam."
The other man had sunk out of sight. Caldwell could only try to save himself now.
"Finally, I heard the helicopter," he said. "When they came by, I started waving like crazy. A guy came down on a cable and put a harness around me and hoisted me back up."
It was none too soon. As he got in the helicopter his legs started to cramp up, he said. He was flown to Forks Airport, then transported by ambulance to the hospital, where he was treated for hypothermia.
Charles' body was recovered, but Abraham's wasn't .
"I'm happy to be alive," he said. "I appreciate everything the hospital and the Coast Guard has done for me. They're really good people to help you in such a state of emergency."
