June 14, 1923
Local Seiner Run Down Off the Boston Fish
Pier
Sch. Agnes Returning with
Cape Shore Trip Sunk by Trawler
David Anderson Drowned – Others of Crew Have Narrow Escape
David Anderson of Gloucester was drowned
and 17 other fishermen barely escaped with their lives last night when the beam trawler Alden
Mills sank the two-masted fishing schooner Agnes
off the fish pier in Boston harbor. The Mills, outbound for this
port, with 240,000 pounds of cod and haddock on board, struck the Agnes
loaded with 25,000 pounds of mackerel, square amidships. Anderson and two
others were thrown overboard when the crash came and almost instantly the schooner’s
rails were awash and she sank within three minutes.
Her crew just had time to launch two dories and those below
to snatch a suit-case or bag and race to the deck when the schooner and her catch went to
the bottom almost in the middle of the main ship channel. So quickly did she sink that a
half dozen members of the crew had to dive overboard when they were trapped aft as they
tried to launch a third dory. The Mills, which cut the schooner
almost in two, backed away and the water poured into the Agnes,
filling her.
The dead man, David Anderson, was a native
of Clarks Harbor, and was 36 years of age. He came here to ship in the Agnes
but a day or so before she sailed for the Cape Shore, and his loss is a particularly sad
one, because he leaves a wife and family of small children to mourn. For several years, Anderson,
who was a member of the Gloucester branch of the Fishermen’s Union, sailed out of
Gloucester, but for the past three or four years, has been master of coastwise craft
sailing out of Nova Scotian ports. His body has not yet been recovered.
The Agnes left here for the Cape
Shore on May 24, under command of Capt. Elroy Prior, after having been
laid up since last season. She carried an insurance of $10,000 on the schooner, and $1,000
on her outfit, through the agency of John A. Johnson, and $3,000 on the schooner and
$2,000 on the outfit through the Gloucester Mutual Fishing Insurance Company.
She was owned by the Fred L. Davis Fisheries Company, and
built at Essex in 1900, being 110 tons gross, 65 tons net, and measured 90.2 feet overall.
She was equipped with 40 horse power auxiliary engines, installed about three years ago. |
