Six months after the F/V Lily Jean sank off Cape Ann, Mass., the Gloucester fishing community gathered Saturday, Aug. 8, to remember the seven people lost aboard the vessel and other mariners who died over the past year.
The annual remembrance at Gloucester’s Fisherman’s Memorial carried particular weight this year following the Jan. 30 sinking of the 72-foot Gloucester-based groundfish trawler Lily Jean about 25 miles off Cape Ann.
All seven people aboard were lost: Capt. Accursio “Gus” Sanfilippo, Paul Beal Sr., Paul Beal Jr., John Rousanidis, Freeman Short, Sean Therrien and NOAA fisheries observer Jada Samitt.
Family members, state officials and members of the community gathered Saturday at the memorial, where generations of Gloucester fishermen lost at sea are remembered.
“It feels like every time they do something like this, you relive it, that day in January,” Tiffany Leigh, girlfriend of Short, told WCVB.
State Sen. Bruce Tarr also spoke about how deeply the loss has affected a community accustomed to the dangers of working at sea.
“It’s more than a headline,” Tarr said. “It’s more than a headline when you’re sitting at the Coast Guard, wondering if your loved one is going to be rescued.”
The memorial came just days after the U.S. Navy declined Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey’s request for assistance recovering data and assessing the feasibility of recovering remains from the Lily Jean wreckage.
As National Fisherman previously reported, Acting Secretary of the Navy Hung Cao wrote to Healey that the Navy was “unable to fulfill” the state’s request for salvage and recovery assistance. The letter did not provide a specific reason for declining the request.
A Navy official later said that the U.S. Coast Guard and National Transportation Safety Board had determined Navy salvage support was not necessary to complete their investigations, but said future requests for other Navy support related to vessel or crew recovery could still be evaluated.
Healey, who attended Saturday’s remembrance, said the state would continue pressing for federal assistance. “I’m very disappointed that the Navy turned down our request for assistance here,” Healey said. “Families need answers, and you know that’s what this is about, getting answers, and we continue work on it and call on the Feds to help us out.”
For the families, those unanswered questions remain intertwined with the inability to bring some of their loved ones home. Short’s mother, Donna Short, told WCVB she remains determined to recover her son, who served in the Maine Army National Guard’s Bravo Company, 3rd Battalion.
“I expected more from the Navy and from the Coast Guard,” she said, adding that she would not give up on bringing her son home.
The Lily Jean sank without a reported mayday or distress call, with an emergency position-indicating radio beacon alerting the Coast Guard to the emergency. The Coast Guard suspended its search Jan. 31 after crews covered approximately 1,047 square miles.
Investigations into the sinking remain ongoing as families and the Gloucester fishing community continue seeking answers about what happened aboard the vessel.
