Among those aboard the ship and presumed dead were a father and son, the Lily Jean’s captain, and a federal fisheries observer, according to officials and people who said they knew crew members.
The vessel’s emergency beacon was activated at 6:50 a.m. on Friday, and within 40 minutes, a Coast Guard helicopter found debris about 25 miles offshore, Captain Jamie Frederick, commander of the agency’s operations in Boston, said at a Saturday news conference.
Governor Maura Healey spoke Saturday in Gloucester with US Coast Guard Captain Jamie Frederick.Craig F. Walker/Globe Staff
The Coast Guard also found the body of one crew member, who was not wearing a survival suit, and an empty life boat, Frederick said.
The tragedy is the latest example of Gloucester reckoning with the lethal risks of commercial fishing, an industry that has given the city a livelihood and identity, as well as its deepest sorrows.
Considered the oldest US port of its kind, Gloucester has undergone dramatic changes to its fishing operations in recent decades as groundfish supplies declined and were subjected to federal restrictions to prevent overfishing.
Commercial fishing is dangerous work, with a fatality rate more than 28 times higher than the national average for occupations, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Hazards include vessel disasters, falls overboard, and injuries involving gear and equipment on board.
The commercial fishing fleet dwindled and Gloucester shifted its attention to diversifying port operations to include whale watching, research organizations, and educational and regulatory groups, according to city planning records.
The Coast Guard is investigating what happened to the Lily Jean with assistance from the National Transportation Safety Board, he said.
Mark Ring, a Gloucester fisherman, said the question is always the first posed and the hardest to answer.
“My answer is always: You don’t know what happened if you weren’t there and thank God you weren’t,” he said.
“It was a good bunch of guys,” said Ring. “No one ran a better operation,” than the captain, who was a “total gentleman on and off the boat.”
Authorities haven’t publicly named the people aboard the vessel. The tragedy that befell the father and son on the Lily Jean continues a lineage in Gloucester of kin boarding fishing boats together and never returning.
“Father and son lost at the same time,” said Gregg Sousa, owner of the Crow’s Nest, an iconic bar in Gloucester. “Not the first time. … That story’s endless through the history of Gloucester.”
Gregg Sousa, owner of the Crow’s Nest in Gloucester, discussed the crew of the Lily Jean, which was lost at sea. Craig F. Walker/Globe Staff
The son lived above the Crow’s Nest and the father’s wife previously worked at the bar, Sousa said. Fishing was a calling for the father, he said.
“More than what he did, it’s what he was,” Sousa said.
Frederick said the decision to stop searching for the Lily Jean was “incredibly difficult and painstaking.”
“I believe there is no longer a reasonable expectation that anyone could have survived this long even if they were wearing a survival suit,” he said. “Our crew searched as long and hard as they possibly could, always with the hope of bringing your loved ones back to Gloucester.”
Governor Maura Healey said, “Massachusetts stands” with Gloucester and recognizes the dangers its fishing community faces to bring local seafood to market.
Governor Maura Healey addressed a press conference in Gloucester on Saturday. Craig F. Walker/Globe Staff
“In a place where we revere and respect and honor our maritime history and our fishing history, it’s more than lore. It’s more than stories,” she said. “It’s people and lives and families and generations who live this way, and that’s why, as a state, we’ll certainly do everything we can to continue to support fishing families.”
Sousa said fishermen struggle during the wintertime because poor weather limits how much they can fish. Sousa’s brother-in-law, Robert “Bobby” Shatford, was among the crew who died in a nor’easter in 1991 aboard the Andrea Gail.
The tragedy was immortalized in the book and movie “The Perfect Storm.”
“No one thinks they’re gonna die,” said Sousa. They think the worst case at all, if I get stuck, if we get caught out in bad weather, it’s gonna really suck. That’s what they think. … They don’t think they’re going to die. If you did, you wouldn’t go, right?”
The fisheries division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which employed the federal observer aboard the Lily Jean, said in an email that it will not send any other observers into the field until Wednesday.
The community center at Our Lady of Good Voyage Church was designated as a gathering spot for residents and the families of those aboard the Lily Jean, said state Senator Bruce Tarr, a Gloucester resident.
The Fishing Partnership, a nonprofit that provides support services to commercial fishermen in New England and their families, is accepting donations, Healey’s office said.
At the Gloucester Fisherman’s Memorial along the harbor, some mourners placed bouquets of flowers.
Rebecca Hailey bowed her head in prayer after laying flowers at the Gloucester Fisherman’s Memorial. Craig F. Walker/Globe Staff
Snow covered some of the names of lost fishermen etched into the cenotaph. A portion of Psalm 107 is inscribed on the memorial: “They that go down to the sea in ships,” said Gloucester Mayor Paul Lundberg, who took office earlier this month.
He spoke of the phrase, “lost at sea.”
“What we will do as a community is ensure that they are not lost, that they are found with us,” Lundberg said. “Everyone in our community knows someone who knows someone who’s involved in this tragedy and involved in this industry.”
Vito Giacalone, a Gloucester native, former ground fishermen, and chair of government affairs at Northeast Seafood Coalition, said the entire New England commercial fishing community, which he referred to as a brotherhood, was in mourning.
Vito Giacalone was flanked Saturday by Governor Maura Healey and state Senator Bruce Tarr during a press conference in Gloucester.Craig F. Walker/Globe Staff
“It’s heavy,” he said, his voice quivering with emotion. “Heavy, heavy, heavy.”
Speaking from St. Peter’s Club, a social club on Main Street in Gloucester, Giacalone said he knew the captain of the Lily Jean and considered him to be a little brother. He was, he said, a “wonderful person, always a smile on his face, and a responsible captain.”
The captain had been fishing for more than 30 years, he said. He was born and raised in Gloucester, the son of a fisherman, and has adult children, according to Giacalone. He fished commercially for ground fish.
During the search for the Lily Jean, the Coast Guard said it covered about 1,047 square miles over 24 hours using aircraft, cutters, and small boats. Crews conducted “coordinated search patterns” based on the weather, sea state, and available evidence, the agency said.
“They never left the scene. They searched all day. They searched all night. They searched again in the early hours of this day,” Tarr said.
The Lily Jean was believed to be returning to port, “full of fish,” perhaps to repair an equipment problem, officials said.
Early Friday, ocean winds were blowing up to 30 miles per hour, with seas of about 4 feet and a temperature of about 12 degrees, according to the National Weather Service in Norton. A freezing spray advisory was in place, and pockets of accumulating ice were possible on vessels, the weather service said.
Giacalone said it takes “multiple issues to have a catastrophic loss. It’s not one thing.”
“We can only imagine what happened. … Here’s a poor guy trying to get home, trying to make a living for his crew,” he said.
“I’ve been crying for two days,” Giacalone said. “It’s just awful.”
A placard honoring the crew of the Lily Jean was displayed at the Gloucester Fisherman’s Memorial Saturday, overlooking Gloucester Harbor. Craig F. Walker/Globe Staff
Shannon Larson of the Globe staff contributed to this report.
Danny McDonald can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him @Danny__McDonald. Laura Crimaldi can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her @lauracrimaldi.
