David Morgan, heroic deckhand in deadly 1986 Bodega Bay shipwreck, dies at 62
Nine people out for a day of ocean fishing perished in the sudden tragedy that struck the Merry Jane party boat just outside of Bodega Harbor in 1986, but more might have died had deckhand David Morgan not responded as he did. Moments after the impact of a great wave threw 19 people overboard, Morgan grabbed every life jacket and ring and floating device he could find and flung them into the water. He broadcast a call for help from the nearby Coast Guard station and, to calculate how many people were overboard, he asked two passengers to count everyone still on the boat. His wife, Kathie Morgan, recalls, “He woke up screaming in the night for a month after that, night after night.” David Morgan, who fished commercially until 1996 and then changed to work on solid ground and in his free time fished the Napa River with his wife for fun and dinner, died Sept. 8 at his home just north of Santa Rosa. He was 62. click here to read the story 10:53
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