Thursday, February 1, 1945
Mildred Silva
Swept by Fire; Abandoned at Sea
Disaster Happened off Virginia Coast; Four Men Landed
Four Others Believed Picked Up
The Gloucester dragger Mildred Silva caught
fire and was abandoned at sea off the coast of Virginia by her crew of eight men,
according to reports reaching here this morning. Four men, who were in one dory, were
picked up and landed at a Virginia port and are on their way home, it was believed, and
the other four were probably picked up by another fishing vessel in the vicinity.
The Mildred Silva, an 85-foot
vessel built in Essex in 1928, left Gloucester about a month ago and has been landing fish
at Portsmouth, Va. She is owned by United Fisheries Co. and others, including Capt. Manuel
G. Silva.
United Fisheries Co. had not heard from the skipper, Capt. Fernandes
Pereira of Staten street, by this noon, indicating that he was not among the four
men reportedly landed by a cutter at Chincoteague, Va.
The crew included Johnny Joseph, Antonio
Fragata, Antonio Rao, Frank Roderick, the
engineer; John Almeida and Manual Jarnado, all of this
city, and a Boston man, it is believed. The Mildred Silva
customarily has a crew of nine, but one man is believed to have stayed ashore on this
trip.
NAVY REPORT - Norfolk, VA, Feb. 1
The Fifth Naval District disclosed today that the schooner Mildred
Silva had been burned and abandoned in the Atlantic off the coast of
Virginia. The Navy did not reveal the cause of the fire. According to the latest
information, four survivors of the schooner Mildred Silva have
been rescued and four are listed as missing. The Navy would not say whether any other
members of the crew had gone down with the ship.
Friday, February 2, 1945
Four Men Still Unaccounted For
Four From Burned Mildred Silva Reach Home; Others May Have Been
Rescued
The four rescued men aboard the ill-fated Gloucester
dragger Mildred Silva, arrived at their homes in this city, late
this forenoon, while the remaining four in the crew of eight are still missing at sea.
The four rescued include Capt. Fernandos Pereira,
44 years; Antone Fragata, 37 years, engineer, John I. Malaquias,
38; and Antone Regalotte, 47 years, of Somerville.
Missing men include
Antonio Rao, 46 years, cook, married, two children
Manuel Janardo, 44, married, two children
Manuel DeAlmeida, 40, married, one child
Frank Roderick, 40, single.
It is believed that it is possible that the four missing
men may have been picked up by the crew of a naval craft which for war reasons may not be
able to reveal the rescue until she enters port again.
Malaquias in telling about the tragedy,
said that they were on their way into Portsmouth, VA, with 30,000 pounds sea bass, on
their third trip since leaving Gloucester for winter southern fishing, when about 3
o’clock Thursday afternoon, with a half gale raging and whipping up plenty rough
seas, the oil stove in the cabin was tipped over by the force of the sea against the
craft, and immediately the boat seemed enveloped in flames.
The skipper ordered all hands to abandon the craft and the
eight men made the deck, launching the two dories, one of which got away from them because
of the seas. However, they all piled into the second dory, not having even time enough to
secure their effects, some of them losing what cash they had in their pockets, a
considerable amount.
They rowed down to the first dory, picked it up, and then
divided into two groups. Capt. Pereira, Malaquias, Fragata, and Regalotte
went in one dory, and the four remaining men in the other dory. The skipper looking back
at the boat and noting that there was plenty of smoke, but not so much fire, decided to
return to the dragger in the belief that there would be far more chance of being rescued
if near a burning craft that might be seen for miles rather than to chance staying afloat
in a dory, where the freezing temperatures and high seas might snuff out their lives. The
other dory apparently continued on rowing toward shore. They were some distance off the
Virginia coast at the time.
When the first dory got back to the dragger, the skipper
and Malaquias boarded the dragger forward, and stayed only a very few
minutes, long enough to secure a supply of water and some food to withstand a siege on the
ocean. The after part of the ship was a blazing inferno, according to the crew. They
planned to seek the second dory and split the food and water supply with them, but they
never saw the second dory and her crew afterward.
They then rowed away from the dragger and were afloat for
five hours before they saw the outline of a large vessel coming toward them. They realized
that with the wind blowing as hard as it was, they would have to get on the wind’ard
side of the craft to make the watch hear their shouts for help. They had nothing else with
which to signal but their voices according to the crew. This they did and fortunately for
the four men, their cries were heard by the watch aboard the ship and the four men were
taken aboard, everyone of them numbed from the cold and plenty weary. The crew of the
larger vessel took good care of the rescued men and when told the story spent the next
three hours circling around the area in a radius of some six miles to look for the other
four men, but without success.
Capt. Pereira had intended to take this
trip into New York instead of Portsmouth, where his other two trips were landed, but the
stiff breeze forced him to change his mind and so he was again bound into Portsmouth.
Saturday, February 3, 1945
No Further Word From Four Missing Local
Fishermen
Up to noon today, no further word had been received as to
the fate of the four Gloucester fishermen adrift in their dory after having to abandon
their burned and sinking dragger, Mildred Silva, last Wednesday
afternoon off the Virginia coast.
Hopes are still held here that the four men may have been
picked up by a passing steamer or war craft and are being taken into some port. The
possible rescue craft could be bound overseas and because of the war, would not find it
advisable to break radio silence to relay news of the rescue ashore. In that event the men
might be carried in a foreign port. The missing men are Antonio Rao, Manuel
DeAlmeida, Frank Roderick, and Manuel Janardo, all of this port.
[Through the entire month of February, hope was still held
that the missing crew members had been picked up by a passing vessel. Some time
after February, family members and friends had to admit to the fact that they would never
see these four men again.] |
