THE “AMAZING GRACE”
Until November 14, 1984 a 146-ton commercial fishing vessel by the name of “Amazing Grace” worked out of Hampton, Virginia. As a rule she worked the coastal area off of New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland and Virginia. On, or about, that date in l984 that ship with her a Captain six crew members became “assumed dead” statistics.
We have some idea what happened to them because the Captain spoke briefly on radio saying them had “taken a huge wave over the bow and that the ship was flooding below....” That's all.
Nothing more was ever heard concerning those last moments of the “Amazing Grace.”
The Coast Guard searched the area for sixteen days and they did find one life raft from the lost vessel, but the ship has never been found.
I have noticed that the official report of this loss
is dates “around November 14, 1984”. which suggests that the interrupted radio message sent by the Captain on the 14th may have been a prelude to a continued struggle to stay afloat. It was the time they lost radio contact but that does tell their exact fate. Crew members of the unoccupied raft could have been swept overboard by the killer wave. The exact of the sinking is unknown so the date is left flexible.
We had no Federal regulations in effect in 1984-85 which required vessels of less than 200-tons to have either life boats of emergency radio beacon equipment on board. The Coast Guard noted at the time that the fishing fleet was made up primarily of ships of less than 200-ton. The estimated we had about 33,000 fishing boats in business at the time, and that 85% of them were under 200 tons. They cited this as one of the factor leading to high death tolls among fishermen and urged new legislation be put in force. The Commercial fisherman objected to such governmental intervention in their business affairs, as many industries still do, but the disappearance of the “Amazing Grace” did cause some interest in changing existing regulations to enhance the chance of survival at sea.
A.L.M. October 20,2004 [c363wds]
