| The Transportation Safety Board of Canada reports that "On 26 July 2005, at approximately 0500, the fishing vessel Ocean Tor, with four persons on board, arrived at the fishing grounds in Canadian waters west of Cape Flattery, Washington, United States, and commenced fishing for turbot. At approximately 1700 Pacific daylight time, the crew was in the process of transferring a load of fish from the nets into the fish holds when the vessel suddenly listed heavily to port, rolled over, and subsequently capsized. A fishery observer and the master were rescued and transferred to the fishing vessel Osprey 1. Two crew members lost their lives. The vessel is presumed to have sunk on 29 July 2005." "The Ocean Tor was a small fishing dragger of closed construction, having an all-welded steel double-chine hull with a raised forecastle. The hull below the main deck was subdivided by five watertight bulkheads, which divided the vessel into the forward crew accommodation, the engine room, forward fish holds (port and starboard), aft fish holds (port and starboard), ice holds (port and starboard), and the lazarette space comprising port and starboard fuel tanks with a centreline steering gear compartment. In addition to these tanks, the vessel had two fuel tanks in the engine room, and two freshwater tanks and a water-ballast tank forward of that. The deckhouse housed the galley, sleeping quarters, engine-room entrance, and stairs leading to the wheelhouse. An inflatable liferaft fitted with a hydrostatic release was stowed on the open deck above the wheelhouse. The vessel was built in 1974 with one large fish hold, an ice hold aft, two net drums on the stern and two trawl winches on deck. In 1979, it was lengthened by approximately 1.8 m in the midships area, the fish hold was subdivided into four, and the single hatch cover was replaced by four separate ones. Further modifications to the stern were made in 1990 to incorporate a centreline fish-hauling ramp. The ice hold was divided in two. The four fish holds were reduced in volume and insulated to allow the fish to be stowed in ice/water slush. A berthing winch was mounted on the deckhouse top to pull nets up the ramp. At the time of the occurrence, the vessel was rigged for bottom-trawling operations with nets wound on each of the drums. Navigation and communication equipment in the wheelhouse included two very high frequency (VHF) radiotelephones, one of which was equipped with digital selective calling (DSC), and an emergency position-indicating radio beacon (EPIRB)." |
