Boat on the sea
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The maritime law offices of Beard Stacey and Jacobsen PLLC are located in Seattle at Fisherman’s Terminal. Out the window of their offices, the attorneys of Beard Stacey and Jacobsen watch the Alaska fishing fleet come and go. With 90 years of combined maritime law experience, the lawyers at Beard Stacey and Jacobsen understand fishermen, how fishing accidents happen, and how fishing accidents can be prevented. Beard Stacey and Jacobsen have obtained record breaking results for their clients. The firm has recovered millions of dollars in compensation for their clients located throughout the United States.

The Alaska fishing fleet remains primarily based in Seattle, where skilled shipyard work can be performed on the vessels that need to be prepared to safely take on the extreme conditions encounterd in Alaska. Many salmon vessels are now preparing to work the lucrative summer Alaska salmon fishing season, with gillnetters, purse seiners, tenders, and processors set to leave port in the next several weeks.

For those fans of the Deadliest Catch, the crab fishing vessel NORTHWESTERN can be seen up close at the Port of Seattle Fishermen’s Terminal northern dock, located off Commodore Way and 20th Street. NORTHWESTERN is a classic design of Alaska crab fishing vessel with a long history of safely working in the dangerous waters of the Bering Sea.

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On Tuesday morning, April 29, Samuel Silverstein of Bremerton was diving for geoduck off Green Point, Washington, with diving partner and owner of 40-foot F/V GOLD RUSH, Robert Mead. Silverstein and Mead were diving in about 60 feet of water, using 300-foot hoses attached to an air compressor on board, which was attended by two deck hands.

According to reports, Silverstein radioed from the bottom that he was having trouble and was coming up. When he surfaced, motioning to be picked up, the deck hands noted that his mask was “turned off.” Then Silverstein said he was going back down due to being tangled, after which he surfaced one more time. At that point, he was too far away for a quick pick-up by GOLD RUSH, so a deckhand requested assistance from nearby Department of Natural Resources vessel DAWN BREAKER. By then, Silverstein had disappeared under water again.
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Ferries operate around the world, most of the time successfully enough. Here in the Puget Sound area, millions rely on ferries each year. In fact, according to the Washington Department of Transportation, over 75,000 commuters use the ferry system each work day, and vehicles board ferries around 11 million times per year for work and leisure, making our ferry system the largest in the U.S. and the third largest in the world.

Ferry collisions, allisions, and casualties are rare in Puget Sound, but, unfortunately, such incidents are not so uncommon around the world. The latest is a horrible tragedy involving the lives of hundreds of high school students on a field trip, as well as many other people aboard for the usually safe 13.5 hour journey between Incheon and Jeju, South Korea.

This ro-ro (roll on/roll off) ferry, SEWOL, was built in Japan in 1994, and started her life ferrying passengers there as NAMINOUE MARU. She is 481 feet long, 72 feet abeam, with a maximum speed of 22 knots. In 2012, she was bought by a Korean marine company and refitted with more passenger deck space, with increased her maximum capacity to 956 persons. Different sources cite a car capacity ranging between 90 and 200, in addition to space devoted to semi-trucks and TEU containers. SEWOL passed more than one safety and insurance inspection for the new additions and weight increase, was pronounced seaworthy, and was set on the Incheon-Jeju route.

On April 16, there were 476 people known to be on board SEWOL. According to reports, 339 of these people were high school students from Danwon High School in Ansan, which is not too far from Seoul, along with some of their teachers. The rest of the people were passengers on other business, and crew. About 16 miles from shore off the southern tip of South Korea, shortly before 9:00 a.m. KST, in calm weather, SEWOL made a hard turn and began to list. Minutes later, a loud noise reverberated. Whilst most of the passengers obeyed the captain’s instructions to remain in their quarters, SEWOL listed ever farther to port, eventually to a degree which removed all hope of evacuating those passengers. By the time the captain made the call to abandon ship, about an half-hour after that hard turn, the intercom system no longer functioned. Good Samaritans in the area and arriving rescue workers saved as many people as they could find, as the SEWOL beam listed perpendicular to the sea, trapping students and other passengers inside. SEWOL took over three hours to sink completely into seas where SAR divers report visibility to be mere inches in front of their faces.
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Ferry Boats are a frequent sight on Puget Sound, so much so that they seem an integral part of the seascape. They work day and night to transport passengers and vehicles between the east and west shores of Puget Sound, throughout the San Juan Islands, and around various smaller ports.

If you are less than sixty years old and grew up in the area, there’s a chance you are still riding on some of the same ferries you enjoyed as a kid. There is a feeling of nostalgia in that, but these Evergreen State Class ferries are nearing the end of their lives. Thus, the Washington State Department of Transportation has ordered four new Olympic Class 144-car/1,500 person ferries. TOKITAE is the first of these, due to begin the Clinton-Mukilteo run this June.

This new class of ferry will be versatile like the Issaquah Class ferries, and safer with wider, less angled stair cases and state-of-the-art emergency evacuation systems. It will also better comply with Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requirements thanks to two elevators.
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Fisherman Franz d’Alquen, 48, was killed in a blast on board on factory trawler ALASKA OCEAN on March 11 at around 9:20 p.m. According to the initial report, the blast resulted from a welding job setting off some acetylene gas that was leaking from a tank located inside an enclosed space, in this case a storage locker. The locker door was blown from its hinges, hitting Mr. d’Alquen.

Glacier Fish Company owns 376-foot ALASKA OCEAN of Seattle. This tragedy occurred about 165 miles out in the Bering Sea. Our condolences go out to all of Mr. d’Alquen’s family and many friends.

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This evening at around 7:13, the crew of SHIRLEY R requested a Coast Guard medevac for one of their men, who had sustained a head injury. The Coast Guard arrived at the scene, about 30 miles west of Grays Harbor, with a motor lifeboat and a Jayhawk helicopter, at about 8:30. The Jayhawk crew hoisted the injured man and set off to Hoquiam, where an EMS team took over. According to the report, the man was then taken in stable condition by ambulance to Grays Harbor Community Hospital.

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This morning, about 10 miles northwest of Unimak Island, Alaska, a man went into the water off 98-foot, Newport, Oregon-based SEEKER. According to reports, the crew aboard Good Samaritan trawler-processor SEAFREEZE ALASKA contacted the Coast Guard asking for help searching for the man. A number of other Good Samaritan vessel crews and Coast Guard helicopter crews joined in the effort immediately, with the Coast Guard Cutter Alex Haley crew arriving to assist during the afternoon.

At the time the seas were 10 feet with winds of 35mph. The missing man is said to be Eric Eder of Waldport, Oregon, a husband and father of young children. How he went into the water has not yet been released and is under investigation. Our hearts go out to his family and friends.

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On the evening of March 10, the Coast Guard received word that one of the MISS COURTNEY KIM crew had sustained numerous injuries when a crab pot fell on him. They were near Sanak Island, which is south of King Cove, when this happened. King Cove has the nearest clinic to that area, and is also the crew’s homeport, so 58-foot MISS COURTNEY KIM headed there pending a morning medevac.

The morning medevac was postponed until after an infant suffering from respiratory distress, in an unrelated emergency, was first medevaced from King Cove to Cold Bay. The Coast Guard helicopter crew then returned to King Cove for the crewman and transported him to Cold Bay. From there, the man was taken to Anchorage by commercial transportation for further medical treatment.

The man’s identity and current condition have not been released. Hopefully, both he and the infant are recovering well at this time.

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The crews of 30-foot F/V MISS JANA and 50-foot F/V EQUINOX, both hailing out of Cordova, AK, and owned by Leslie P. Allen of Valdez, came to the rescue of three people whose 36-foot Belltech 5 was sinking near Valdez Wednesday night.

The Coast Guard issued an Urgent Marine Information Broadcast as soon as the Belltech 5 crew alerted them via VHF 16 what was happening. Fortunately, MISS JANA and EQUINOX were close enough to make the difference.

The Belltech 5 had already sunk with her crew already in the water when MISS JANA arrived to pull them out. The three rescued men were then transferred to EQUINOX, which in turn transferred them to the Coast Guard for further transport for medical care. Conditions at that time included snow, 7mph winds, and 3-foot seas.

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On Tuesday, February 25, the Coast Guard was called in to medevac a crewman, aged 25-30, for a severe injury to his left hand. According to the record, the Coast Guard medevaced the man from OCEAN PHOENIX via helicopter to Cold Bay, and from there he was taken to Providence Medical Center in Anchorage.

Reports indicate that this happened about 85 miles northwest of Cold Bay. The crewman’s name and current condition have not been released. At the time of his medevac, winds were at 35mph winds with 10-foot seas.

OCEAN PHOENIX, a 680-foot fish processor owned by Premier Pacific Seafoods of Seattle, has had a slew of bad luck this month. On February 16, one of the crewmen was medevaced for an eye injury. On February 13, a 25-year-old crewmember was medevaced because she was experiencing chest pains.

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Contact Information
Stacey & Jacobsen, PLLC Seattle, Washington
4039 21st Ave W. #401
Seattle, WA 98199
Phone: 206-282-3100 Toll Free: 877-332-5529 Fax: 206-282-1149
Stacey & Jacobsen, PLLC Anchorage, Alaska
205 E Benson Blvd #321
Anchorage, AK 99503
Phone: 907-751-2588 Toll Free: 877-332-5529

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