The investigation of the sinking of a commercial fishing boat from Gloucester reached to a stage where the Coast Guard officials found that a tug towing a barge was behind the accident that both crew members dead. Coast Guard Capt. Gail Kulisch, commander of Sector Boston, refused to identify the tug or provide any details about its role in the mysterious incident that occurred in relatively calm seas last Saturday, about 15 miles from the home port of the Patriot and its crew, Capt. Matteo Russo, 36, and his father-in-law, John Orlando, 59.
Kulisch explained that the 2,000-foot-long steel cable the tug was using has been taken into “evidence.” She pointed out that the cable would be studied inch by inch for signs of whether it rubbed on the black-hulled Patriot. It is informed that a slightly smaller fishing boat, the Heather Lynne II was run down by a towed barge about 10 miles east of Thacher Island in 1996. The result all the three crew members were trapped and died slowly.
Kulisch, along with Coast Guard Cmdr. Nathan Knapp, who headed the search-and-rescue effort for the Patriot and its crew, met earlier in the day with the families of the dead fishermen, and also met with Mayor Carolyn Kirk, state Sen. Bruce Tarr, state Rep. Ann-Margaret Ferrante and City Councilor Sefatia Romeo. It is said that the VMS technology has been used primarily for law enforcement, tracking the whereabouts of fishing boats, but is not used as actively in lifesaving situations.
