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January 9, 2008

Coast Guard tows flooded trawler to safety

A 56-foot commercial fishing trawler took on water and was in danger of running onto rocks near Point Judith before it was towed to safety by the Coast Guard this afternoon. No injuries were reported.

The trawler Mistress started to take on water last night about three miles northeast of Block Island. Water pumps could not keep up, and by 6 this morning the crew called Coast Guard Station Point Judith to report a flooded engine room and an adrift vessel, the Coast Guard said.

The Coast Guard broadcast a request for any vessels in the area to help the Mistress, according to a news release. The Mistress contacted sister ship Second Wind, a 67-foot stern trawler, which arrived and towed the Mistress. The vessels headed toward their home port of Point Judith. A 47-foot Coast Guard rescue boat from Coast Guard Station Point Judith also responded.

By 11:30 a.m., as the two sister ships neared entrance to Point Judith's outer harbor, Petty Officer 2nd Class Tim Burns, the coxswain of the 47-foot Coast Guard rescue boat, said, the Second Wind's towlines parted: the Mistress was in danger of grounding against a harbor break wall.

"We had about 30 seconds before they [Mistress] were on the rocks," Burns said in the statement. He said his crew reacted quickly and threw several heaving lines to take the Mistress in tow.

"If we hadn't thrown those heaving lines over, they would have been in trouble," said Burns. It is this sort of towing scenario that Coast Guard crews regularly train for, according to the statement.

Once the Mistress was towed into Point Judith Pond inner harbor, another Coast Guard crew from a 27-foot rescue boat boarded the flooded vessel with de-watering pumps and pumped out the engine room. The Mistress was moored by 2:30 p.m.

-- projo.com staff writer Michael P. McKinney

Posted by Mike McKinney  at 6:25 PM | Permalink

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