Tag Archives: James Lakey killed
A fishing boat captain and two deckhands died in a disastrous Oregon bar crossing. Could it have been prevented?
Joshua Porter got dressed for his job around 4 a.m. on Jan. 8, 2019, sat down at the end of the bed, buried his face in his hands and told his longtime partner he didn’t want to go. He was scared. A storm was brewing off the Oregon coast, where the Mary B II would be competing with dozens of other fishing boats in the first days of the Dungeness crab fishing season. In the handful of days he had worked on the Mary B II, Porter had become concerned. The 50-year-old captain, Stephen Biernacki, new to the Pacific Northwest’s waters, repeatedly refused advice from experienced sailors, had once ran his boat aground and seemed to be unfamiliar with the most elementary aspects of fishing for crab. “Well, why are you going?” Denise Barrett Ramirez, standing in the bedroom doorway of their Toledo home, asked him that morning. “Got bills to pay,” Porter replied. “I have to go.” more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 17:44
Mom of doomed Mary B II skipper calls him experienced seaman for whom safety was ‘paramount,’ contradicting other witnesses
In day five of the Coast Guard hearing into the January capsizing of the Mary B II fishing vessel, the mother of the captain described a man vastly different from the one depicted throughout the week by other witnesses. Mary B. Anderson, managing member of the Mary B II LLC, bought the former Bess Chet last fall, after her son, Stephen Biernacki, convinced her it would be a good business opportunity. >click to read<13:06
