Talking about what went wrong during a rescue mission near Port au Choix, N.L. earlier this month, Canadian Coast Guard Capt. Irving Barney takes a pause, and sighs.
Barney has been rescuing people for close to four decades. Before that he was a fisherman.
Yet despite all those days on the water, he is still weary of the Atlantic Ocean and how quickly things can turn from a calm to dangerous.
“You never know what you are going to get when you leave the dock,” he said, a sentiment about the Atlantic he holds tight to his heart.
It was another day at the office on the morning of Sept. 8. Things were going according to plan as the coast guard crew steamed toward a distressed vessel to tow it into safety. The four person crew of the Linden’s Commander had radioed for help around 10 a.m. NT that morning, when their scallop dragger lost power in the Strait of Belle Isle.
Barney was towing them when things took a turn for the worse. Winds picked up, and a swell made towing the steel dragger through a rolling, angry Atlantic Ocean very difficult.
“When we got west of Ferolle Point, that’s when the weather changed,” Barney said.
Ferolle Point juts out into the Strait of Belle Isle, a body of water where winds tunnel through and are notoriously bad when they are blowing in a southwesterly direction, which they were that day.
While navigating the onset of bad weather, the CCGS Cape Norman rescue crew, and the men onboard the Linden’s Commander, did not realize that wasn’t the only storm brewing.
Colossal waves turned this routine fishing run into a rollercoaster of a rescue mission near Port aux Choix
“The boat started rolling out on her side and she wouldn’t come back, and the sea was getting worse, and the swell was getting worse,” said Daniel Morgan, captain of the Linden’s Commander.
The scallop boat developed a list, an angle that puts a boat at high risk of capsizing into the sea.
“It’s hard to watch,” said Barney, who knew he had to act fast.
By this time, the crew of the Linden’s Commander had their survival suits on, fearing the worst.
“You know you got her in tow, then she’s broadside to the swell and you know it becomes a very dangerous situation. There’s a good chance the vessel could go over on its side,” Barney said.
But the coast guard vessel was also fighting its own fight. With waves double the height of an average house engulfing both boats, and winds pushing them back, the Cape Norman was burning fuel at a fast pace.
“It was soon realized that I never had enough fuel to get the boat back to Port au Choix,” said Barney.
With time ticking, and the crews in distress, Barney had to think fast.
While keeping a close eye on the Linden’s Commander bobbing up and down in the raging sea, he called the St. John’s rescue base and asked for back-up.
Luckily, another fishing boat was nearby and able to respond: the Strait’s Stream, a shrimp fishing crew who turned toward those troubled waters to take over the tow so that Barney could head back to Port au Choix and refuel.
Around the same time, Gander dispatched a Cormorant search and rescue helicopter to aid in the rescue.
Looking down at his hands, and taking a deep breath, Barney said he felt relief, not just because help was coming, but in knowing they weren’t alone.
What came next was a multilayered rescue that illustrates the deep connection between fishermen, and the importance of search and rescue resources being available at the eleventh hour.
As seas continued to wreak havoc, a beacon of hope came from the now black sky. A skilled helicopter pilot hovered over the crew, and was able to lure down a pump to the fishing dragger, which was tossing in the waves like a feather in the wind.
The tired and wet crew of the Linden’s Commander were able to pump sea water from one side to another, and stabilize their boat after hours of being at risk.
Shawn Dempster, captain of the Strait’s Stream, continued the tow, bringing the crew to the safety of Port au Choix harbour where a relieved Barney met them, and once more took over.
Docking just after midnight in Port au Choix, after 10 hours at sea and a situation that could have turned out much differently if those resources were not available, all men were on dry land.
“We were relieved to get them in safely. That was the main thing, getting the men,” said Dempster from the wharf.
Despite helping to save lives, the fishing doesn’t stop, and Dempster is once again heading to the shrimp fishing grounds.
Dempster’s phone rings during his entire interview, with fishermen from all along that coast asking about what happened, relieved this story had a happy ending.
Sitting down with the crew of the Linden’s Commander the next day, they’re all smiles and ready to get back to work.
They’re grateful for a night’s sleep in a hotel room at the Sea Echo Motel, and a warm meal.
Like Capt. Barney, Dempster and most who make a living on the Ocean, despite knowing the risks, they head back on the water anyway.
Fishing is one of the most dangerous jobs in the world and the people who work in it are resilient, knowing not all incidents turn out the way it did for the crew of the Linden’s Commander, and that search and rescue resources aren’t always available.
They do it all again on the unpredictable waters of the Atlantic.
Download our free CBC News app to sign up for push alerts for CBC Newfoundland and Labrador. Sign up for our daily headlines newsletter here. Click here to visit our landing page.
