Jose Teixeira, the owner of the 18-meter fishing boat Fortune Pride, reported two fatalities on Friday after his boat capsized on Thursday. Out of the four crew men on board, two have perished: Philip MacInnis, a deckhand, and the captain, who has been identified as John Allen Baker.
Fortune Pride was returning with a full catch of silver hake (hake is a demersal (bottom) fish that typically inhabits depths of 50–600 feet)
The weather and strong gusts seem to have contributed to the boat’s capsize, and the sea can be cruel. According to reports, the sea was 4 meters (more than 13 feet) high, the wind was up to 40 knots (74 km/h), and there was some decreased visibility. The fishing boat was said to be in excellent shape and to have passed a seaworthiness inspection within the last 12 months.
The Fortune Pride reported no signs of distress when the business owner spoke with the fishing boat at 8:30 p.m. that evening. Around 10 p.m., an emergency beacon signal was detected, and rescue operations were initiated and originated around 18 kilometres southeast of Sambro, Nova Scotia, on Thursday.
Bardencj, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
The Captain had been fishing for about half a century, since he was a young boy. Baker and his family are well-known in Canso, Nova Scotia, from where they fish out of. It’s a devastating loss, particularly for a community as close-knit as Canso, where they live off the sea.
Canso has been a strategically significant fishing base since the 16th century. Within a dozen years following Columbus’s arrival in America, European fur traders and fisherman are reported to have frequented the harbour of Canso, and as early as 1518, an attempt was made to settle here.
A team from Canada’s Transportation Safety Board is being dispatched to look into the fishing vessel’s capsize.
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