Local Tuna Boats Come To Rescue Burning Tuna Vesselff
27 October 2011
United States Source: Gloucester Daily Times Off duty and trolling for tuna in Stellwagen Bank, two Coast Guardsmen overheard a weekend “mayday†call from commercial fishing boat, and after spotting the smoke from the engine room of the Portsmouth, N.H., boat Elizabeth Ann, responded in time to give the crew two fire extinguishers to knock down the blaze.
A Gloucester dragger, Capt. Gussie Sanfilippo’s Lily Jean, also heard the mayday call and steamed to the rescue, the Coast Guard said in a prepared statement about the Sunday morning incident, about 20 nautical miles east southeast of Gloucester.
Petty Officer 2nd class Alex Waide, who was tuna fishing with Chief Petty Officer George Bannon on his 27-foot center console outboard, said the Lily Jean provided two more fire extinguishers.
There were no injuries. And once the first was out, the damaged dragger was towed to Gloucester by the Coast Guard’s 47-foot rescue boat after it arrived from Station Gloucester, about an hour after the mayday call.
