Fire scene in Bering Sea: Injured captain credited with saving lives

With his ship, the Galaxy, fast becoming a floating inferno on the Bering Sea Sunday afternoon, Capt. Dave Shoemaker worked frantically to find his 25-person crew and get them off the vessel.

A fiery blast had tossed men into the water like flotsam. Flames and black smoke were racing through the ship, trapping some men in the wheelhouse and sending others desperately leaping into a churning, frigid sea, colleagues would later say.

And still Shoemaker, his ribs broken, his hands and arms scorched, braved the blaze to make it to the ship's radio — and make an abbreviated call for help, according to the Coast Guard, families, acquaintances and the attorney for Galaxy Fisheries of Seattle, which owns the 180-foot vessel.

"It was a heroic effort," said attorney John Young. "He did get off the Mayday call, and that's what saved a lot of lives."

One crewman, Jose R. Rodas of Pasco, was confirmed dead yesterday as a massive rescue effort continued for two missing men, First Mate Jerry L. Stephens of Edmonds and ship's cook George Karn of Anchorage. Families of both men said yesterday they had been told the two crewman were presumed dead.

Most of the crew, however, were safe and recovering aboard three fishing ships, and their skipper was in a Seattle hospital, expected to recover.

It was too early to say what caused an engine-room fire and blast that engulfed the ship, said Lt. Brad Wilson of the Coast Guard station in Juneau.

When the intense fire broke out late in the afternoon, Stephens and Karn stood over a hatch, trying to fight the flames, family members and acquaintances said.

The blast hurled Stephens, who wasn't wearing a survival suit, into the Bering Sea darkness.

"When he got blown off the boat, they threw him a life ring, but he didn't respond," his older brother, John Stephens of Edmonds, said yesterday.

The fire was so intense that the crew had to abandon ship within five minutes of the blast, said Young.

Fifteen men climbed into a life raft. Five people, including Karn and fisheries biologist Ann Weckback, went into the water, a churning bath of 15-foot swells, stoked by frigid 40-knot winds that blew mist that froze into pellets and mixed with the freezing rain and snow.

Shoemaker, a 53-year-old father of four and Vietnam veteran, stayed behind to make sure everyone escaped — and to radio for help.

Thirty miles away, at a tiny and remote Coast Guard radio station on St. Paul Island, the radios scratched to life with Shoemaker's hurried Mayday. The captain had time only to give his location and report an explosion. He ended by saying the crew was abandoning ship because the fire was so severe. Then silence.

Soon, the skippers of three other fishing vessels — the Glacier Bay, Clipper Express and Blue Pacific — hailed the radio operators at St. Paul Island to say they had heard the distress call and were on the way to help the Galaxy, said the Coast Guard's Wilson.

The Blue Pacific was about 25 miles from the Galaxy when it heard the call, said James Mize, a spokesman for Blue North Fisheries of Seattle, the Blue Pacific's owner.

"Knowing there was bad weather, we wanted to get there as soon as possible," Mize said.

At Cold Bay on the tip of the Alaskan Peninsula, a Coast Guard rescue helicopter took off for the Galaxy.

The three fishing boats and the helicopter arrived about the same time, about three hours after the fire broke out, to find a floating inferno.

Aboard the Galaxy, Shoemaker and some of his crew were trapped at the ship's bow and in the wheelhouse. The helicopter lowered a line and hoisted Shoemaker, Mirek Slawinski, Marco Casal, Jose Montoya-Arguenta, and Jose Argueta-Urias into the helicopter. In the water alongside the ship, Jose R. Rodas was floating without a survival suit and was tangled in some buoys.

He was lifted into the helicopter, and it beelined for St. Paul Island. Rodas had no pulse, and rescuers tried cardiopulmonary resuscitation the entire way back to the island, Wilson said. But Rodas was pronounced dead when they got there.

Montoya-Arguenta and Argueta-Urias were well enough to stay at the tiny clinic at St. Paul Island, but Shoemaker, Slawinski and Casal were flown to hospitals in Anchorage, arriving about 3 a.m.

Slawinski and Casal were released yesterday morning. Shoemaker was flown to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, where he was being treated last night for burns on his hands, left forearm and abdomen. He also suffered three rib fractures.

The crew of the Glacier Bay was sailing for St. Paul Island to pick up a new cook when it heard the distress call, said Arnljot Wagsholm, the Glacier Bay's skipper. "We steamed toward where we thought the Galaxy was and we heard there was an explosion on board, so we started preparing for the worst."

The crew arrived to find the life raft and the 15 Galaxy crewmen aboard:

Raul Velma of Tacoma; Mike Pigott of Hawaii; Calvin Paniptchuk of Shaktoolik, Alaska; Tony Denuccio of Eugene, Ore.; Julien Martines of Seattle; Cruz Alfaro-Moz of Seattle; Stephen Rau of Seattle; Reagan Gilimete of Coos Bay, Ore.; Manuel Orellana of Lynnwood; Jose A. Rodas of Seattle; Miguel Flores of SeaTac; Camilo Barrientos of Federal Way; Jose Recinos of Seattle; Jose Arias of Seattle; and Aquilino Argueta-Chicas of Seattle.

They all were able to scurry up a rope ladder to safety. The Glacier Bay was carrying them toward St. Paul Island yesterday.

"This is the worst I've experienced," said Wagsholm, skipper of the Glacier Bay. "I've never been in a situation where I've actually had to pick up people from a burning vessel. I've searched for people who have gone overboard throughout the years, but nothing like this."

The Clipper Express found a crewman, Ryan Newhall, and Weckback, a National Marine Fisheries Service observer, floating in the high seas. They were fished out of the icy water and were recovering from hypothermia aboard the Clipper Express yesterday, Wilson said.

The Blue Pacific found one man, Matt Taylor of Seattle, floating in the water and pulled him to safety.

"It's an unwritten law of the sea. ... It's a duty to come to the aid of others in peril," said Mize, spokesman for the Blue Pacific's owners. "The fishing industry is interconnected. We're like a family so if something happens to another boat it isn't like it's happening to a stranger."

The Blue Pacific plans to take Taylor — who is a little shaken, but doing well — to St. Paul Island when the weather calms enough to enter the town's harbor, Mize said.

Yesterday, the search for Stephens and Karn grew massive. The Coast Guard cutter Jarvis arrived at the scene and was being aided by a Coast Guard C-130 airplane, two more Coast Guard Jayhawk helicopters and, briefly, by the three fishing boats, Wilson said. The Coast Guard has a computer that measures the currents and the winds to predict where the men might have drifted after going overboard.

Stephens' brother, though, is resigned to the fact that he died in the blast.

The Galaxy will be allowed to drift until the fire goes out and it is safe to tow it to St. Paul Island, where Coast Guard investigators will begin searching for clues to the cause of the blast, said Chief Petty Officer Roger Wetherell of the Coast Guard.

The actions of its skipper — and the seaworthiness of the Galaxy herself — were the focus of praise yesterday among the Alaskan fishing community.

"It's scary because this is a well-maintained boat, and this company has responsible owners and operators," said John Bundy, the Glacier Fish Co. president. He said his company leased the Galaxy three years ago for one season of crab fishing. "If this could happen to them, it can happen to any of us."

The steel-hulled Galaxy was a former Coast Guard vessel, Magnolia, that had been decommissioned and converted for fishing. The Galaxy was a workhorse, in service almost nonstop for two decades. Five years ago, it was rebuilt to catch and freeze Pacific cod.

Shoemaker, described as congenial, conscientious and experienced, had manned the helm of the Galaxy for years.

"This has been his baby," Young said.

The father of four, an elder in his Carnation church, Shoemaker is admired as an exceptionally cautious captain.

"He's a really good guy who's been on the water forever," said Mike Sherlock of the Lake Union shipyards. "He's a real topnotch captain with good common sense, and (his crew) broke all kinds of (fishing) records."

After the Galaxy's last voyage, Shoemaker raved to his wife, Myra, about the trip, Young said. "They had not a single accident, not a single injury," he said.

Galaxy Fisheries' majority shareholder is Aleutian Spray Fisheries Inc. of Seattle, which operates two other ships, the 240-foot factory trawler Starbound and the 145-foot Horizon, in the Bering Sea. The majority owner of Aleutian Spray Fisheries is Cary Swasand, 56, of Bellevue, member of a longtime fishing family.

The Galaxy is part of a fleet of more than 30 vessels known as freezer longliners that fish for cod using thousands of baited hooks set along the ocean bottom.

Caught fish are beheaded, gutted and frozen on board.

The Galaxy registered more than 200 gross tons, and was required — unlike much of the Alaska fishing fleet — to have a licensed skipper and mate, said Sue Jorgensen, a fishing-safety official for the Coast Guard's 17th district. The Coast Guard has logged two mishaps with the Galaxy in the past decade. In 2000, the company was given a formal warning about a pollution spill near Kiska Island, Alaska. In August that year, the ship lost its steering in Bristol Bay. No one was hurt in either incident.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration last inspected the Galaxy five years ago. OSHA found eight violations of workplace rules, including two classified as serious. The company paid a $525 fine and fixed them. The violations included inadequate practices to control leaks of flammable and combustible liquids, OSHA area director Joy Flack said yesterday. Galaxy and Coast Guard officials yesterday said ammonia leaks were one possible cause of the inferno. Ammonia leaks are common in freezer factories, but explosions are rare.

Mike Harper, field superintendent for W.E. Stone & Co. of Seattle, a leader in marine industrial refrigeration, said he doubted the Galaxy's refrigeration system would explode because ammonia is flammable but not explosive.

Diesel fuel, like that powering the Galaxy, is also not explosive.

Fishing in Alaska ranks as one of the nation's most dangerous occupations. Over the past decade, new safety standards have helped reduce the annual death toll, reaching a low of three deaths in 1997. Last year, that death toll bumped up to 24 with the sinking of the Arctic Rose and its 15-person crew.

So far this year, the Alaska fishing industry has claimed seven lives, including the one confirmed death from the Galaxy.

Fishing vessels in Alaskan waters reported 207 explosions and fires to the Coast Guard from 1992 through 2000, mostly minor, and three deaths and 23 injuries from them, but none of those incidents was suddenly, massively catastrophic like the Galaxy reported.

Just yesterday, three men were rescued from the Bering Sea by another fishing vessel after abandoning their disabled boat, the Rocket II.

The crew of the Rocket II , whose homeport is in Sitka, radioed a distress call about 10:20 a.m., saying they had lost power and were drifting toward rocks off Cape Cheerful in the Aleutian Islands. They tried to deploy a life raft, but it blew away, so they jumped into the sea at about 12:24 p.m., with one crewman in a survival suit and the other two wearing dry suits, Foucalt said. They were rescued about 12:50 p.m. and taken to Dutch Harbor.

Seattle Times staff reporters J.J. Jensen, Christine Clarridge, Hal Bernton, Peyton Whitely, Nancy Bartley, computer-assisted reporter Justin Mayo and news researcher Miyoko Wolf contributed to this report. Ian Ith: 206-464-2109 or iith@seattlerimes.com.