Massachusetts officials are asking for the U.S. Navy’s help in recovering a piece of equipment from the fishing vessel that sunk off the coast of Gloucester earlier this year, believing the video it contains could shed light on what caused the ship to go down.
Seven people, including the ship’s captain and crew and a fisheries observer for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, died when the Lily Jean sank on Jan. 30 without sending any distress or mayday call beforehand.
Gov. Maura Healey and state Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr, a Gloucester Republican, wrote Monday to U.S. Navy Secretary Hung Cao, requesting help “to uncover all facts related to this incident and bring closure to the families of the F/V Lily Jean while improving safety for those who chose to carry on this beloved tradition in the future.”
“Massachusetts has a long, proud history of seafaring thanks to generations of men and women who risk their lives fishing off our coast and in the North Atlantic,” Healey and Tarr said in their letter.
Healey and Tarr said officials in the Massachusetts State Police received information suggesting that a video recorder and hard drive on the ship remain intact, and that the company that installed the equipment believes the video is retrievable.
The footage, they wrote, could provide key details about the “immediate moments before the ship was lost” and help federal transportation officials craft safety recommendations “to prevent future maritime disasters.”
According to a Healey spokesperson, the governor had previously asked the National Transportation Safety Board and the U.S. Coast Guard to investigate the equipment on board the Lily Jean, but NTSB officials told her they would not lead an effort to recover it.
In addition to asking for Navy expertise and resources to get the video equipment, Healey and Tarr also asked that the Navy assess whether it would be feasible to recover the remains of the lost crew members, in keeping with each family’s wishes.
