Alaska Fishing Boat Toll: 42 Saved, 4 Dead, 1 Lost
In the waters of the Bering Sea, Coast Guard crews have stopped looking for crewmen from a ship that sank this week. The Alaska Ranger was moving through waves 20 feet high, with dozens of crewmen aboard, when it lost its rudder. The crew had time to send a mayday call to the Coast Guard before abandoning ship.
The Anchorage Daily News reports that when the first rescuers arrived by helicopter, they saw crewmen in the sea — out of lifeboats — stretching for a mile. Some of them floated for three hours before help arrived.
In the end, 42 crewmen survived. Four others were fished out of the cold water but did not survive. One was lost at sea.
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