Tag Archives: Christopher Hutchinson
A lobster boat captain said a freak storm killed his crew. Then doctors found drugs in his system.
Christopher Hutchinson said he had no idea the storm would grow so strong so fast. It was November 2014, and Hutchinson, 28, had set out in his 45-foot lobster boat, a fiberglass craft called No Limits. He wanted to check on 15 traps in Eleven Mile Ridge, a popular lobstering area off the coast of Maine. Two crewmen manned the boat with him — Tomas Hammond, 26, and Tyler Sawyer, 15. They arrived at dawn on a Saturday morning and began pulling up traps, but the weather worsened. “Prior to the No Limits departure, the National Weather Service was predicting and warning of adverse and dangerous marine weather and sea conditions in the area,” the indictment says. “Marine weather forecasts, watches and warnings [were] continuously broadcast on radio.” Prosecutors claim Hutchinson was also negligent in employing a 15-year-old boy, a complicated and sensitive issue among people who make their living catching lobsters. Read the story here 08:26
