Apprehension: Young deckhands backed out of fatal F/V Arctic Fox II trip just before fishboat departed
Two men who were supposed to crew the boat decided to leave money on the table and walk away before it hit the open ocean. Raymond and Anthony Dixon, twins from the Nanaimo area, were on board the F/V Arctic Fox II as new deck hands with Captain Tom Lindberg when they sailed out of Cowichan Bay Marina on Sunday, Aug. 2. Originally, there was another deckhand, Jessie Gilbert, who had actually recruited Raymond. But the day before Raymond was due to arrive in Cowichan Bay, Gilbert had to go home sick. So Raymond recruited Anthony, who was hired immediately. It would have been the 19-year-old brothers’ first commercial fishing trip. >click to read< 06:53
Brothers sensed danger and didn’t stay on boat that later capsized – In Victoria, Dixon and his brother met the boat’s owner, Larry Teague, who told them they have to keep an eye out for boats because Lindberg’s eyesight was poor. Dixon believes Lindberg was in his early 80s. >click to read<10:04
I could tell just from the picture that the Arctic Fox was an unseaworthy vessel. I would guess that from the size of that cabin in relation to the hull that at the very least, it would be a rollin’ pig.