Boat In Which Three Died Had History Of Trouble

The Seattle crab boat that sank this week, killing three of four crew members aboard, had a similar close call in 1988, according to the diary of a former first mate.

Tyler Bricker's account of the previous incident, in which the 165-foot Pacific Apollo took on water in its engine room and nearly rolled over, was provided yesterday by Seattle attorney Warren Dewar.

The Pacific Apollo sank Wednesday, reportedly after taking on water in the engine room, about 200 miles southwest of the Queen Charlotte Islands in British Columbia. The ship was en route from Anacortes in Skagit County to Dutch Harbor, Alaska, in the Aleutians, to begin the Bering Sea fishing season.

In January 1988, Bricker made a journal entry dated 10 days before he died in an unrelated accident at sea. He described how the vessel almost rolled over when the engine room took on water through two holes drilled at a shipyard.

He described ``water pouring down into the engine room from the starboard (top). . . . Two holes had been cut into it for power cables while at the shipyard but had not been re-welded closed.

``Those holes were underwater now because the back deck was underwater. Plus, the crab tank discharge line valves weren't closed and there was quite a bit of water in the starboard crab tanks when they should have been dry,'' Bricker wrote.

That caused a serious stability problem and the vessel almost sank, he said.

``In Those 25 minutes or so gave me a new and real respect for proper loading and attention to potential stability problems. I'm on watch now and still a little shaken over the past incident,'' Bricker wrote.

Yesterday, an official of the company that owned the Pacific Apollo, All Alaskan Seafoods Inc.of Seattle, said the holes Bricker described in his journal were immediately patched.

``When they figured out where the water was coming from, the chief engineer went back up and patched the holes,'' said Jeff DeBell, vice president for finance and administration.

``It was fixed immediately, as soon as the vessel was righted. They went up with a piece of steel and welded it.

``It's pretty hard to believe that 2- or 3-inch holes would be the cause of the sinking of a vessel of that size,'' DeBell said, referring to this week's incident.

Killed in Wednesday's sinking were skipper Pat Berg, chief engineer Len Dodge and mate Terry Goebel.

The survivor was deckhand Art Stein, 20, of Seattle. He and the remains of two of the three victims were to arrive in Seattle this weekend aboard the Snow King, the 220-foot factory trawler that rescued Stein.

On Jan. 26, 1988, first mate Bricker died at sea aboard the Pacific Apollo, and attorney Dewar was one of several lawyers who was involved in a lawsuit against All Alaskan Seafoods over his death.

Three months ago a federal judge accepted a $350,000 settlement intended to help support Bricker's two surviving children.

Bricker died in the Bering Sea. Court records explained how Bricker ended up overboard:

``Tyler Bricker was in the process of securing the tanner boards to a crab pot which had been placed on the crab-pot launching platform located on the starboard edge of the ship's deck.''

Securing the board to the crab pot required Bricker to put his hands and upper body inside the pot.

``Ron Naughton actuated the crab-pot launching lever which launched the crab pot in which Tyler Bricker was securing the tanner boards,'' says the court record. Bricker was pulled into the ocean with the crab pot.

Weather conditions at the time of this week's sinking were 15-foot seas and 35-mph winds.

``It wasn't that bad for a boat that size in that area,'' said John Houlihan, a spokesman at the Coast Guard Rescue Center in Victoria, B.C.

The four crew members began putting on survival suits when the Pacific Apollo began taking on water, said Houlihan. The vessel rolled over as the skipper made a last call for help on the radio in the pilot house. At the time, he had only half of his survival suit on.

The body of one of the crewmembers was not found. The other two who died were found floating in the water. One was picked up about 9 a.m. Wednesday, the other 40 minutes later.

The two had on survival suits, but the suits' hoods were down.

``Maybe water got in them,'' said Houlihan. ``We don't know what happened. When the boat rolled they might have been hit.''

Stein, the lone survivor, was in a life raft for about 20 minutes before he was rescued, said Houlihan. Houlihan said somehow Stein ended up in the water just before being picked up.