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Divers recovered the bodies of two crew members two weeks after the shrimp boat Pappy’s Pride capsized after colliding with a chemical tanker near Galveston, Texas. The accident left three fishermen dead with one survivor.

The Galveston County Sheriff’s Office conducted the recovery operation Jan. 30, two days after the Coast Guard completed its response and the Pappy’s Pride was moved from the edge of the Galveston Bay entrance channel.

Inside the vessel, deputies found the bodies of Antonio Robles, 44, of Pharr, Texas, and Raymond Herrera, 56, of Texas City, The Daily News of Galveston County reported.

The 81-foot shrimper collided with the 600-foot Bow Fortune Jan. 14 near the Galveston jetties, and Coast Guard officials said Houston-Galveston Vessel Traffic Service watchstanders were contacted with a report of four persons in the water.

Two Coast Guard response boats were launched, and one crew recovered a man while another was taken on by a good Samaritan vessel. But one was declared dead on shore by medical examiners.

The tanker operator, Norway-based Odfjell, reported there was heavy fog at the time of the collision, as the Bow Fortune was inbound under pilotage as the first vessel in a convoy.

A three-day search commenced for the two missing men, and navigation was restricted with the capsized fishing vessel laying at the edge of the ship channel.

Sole survivor Steven Edison told television station KHOU the Pappy’s Pride crew were departing for a three-day shrimping trip to Key West, Fla., when the channel was beset by fog.

“I just see this big ship come out of the fog, and I had maybe 10 seconds to react,” Edison told the station. The Coast Guard said it is continuing to investigate the accident.

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Associate Editor Kirk Moore was a reporter for the Asbury Park Press for more than 30 years and a 25-year field editor for National Fisherman before joining our Commercial Marine editorial staff in 2015. He wrote several award-winning stories on marine, environmental, coastal and military issues that helped drive federal and state government policy changes. Moore was awarded the Online News Association 2011 Knight Award for Public Service for the “Barnegat Bay Under Stress,” 2010 series that led to the New Jersey state government’s restoration plan. He lives in West Creek, N.J.

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