Reported By Bill Trotter
BDN Staff
7/1/10

WINTER HARBOR, Maine — A local lobsterman shook his head slightly Thursday as he recalled how his boat rammed into another the day before off Schoodic Point. The lobsterman, 37, said he had seen another lobster boat in the distance a few minutes before, but did not realize his boat and the other boat were bearing down upon each other until he felt the sudden, violent impact of the collision.  A man, 71, died in the accident. “I didn’t see him. He didn’t see me,” the lobsterman said, standing on the local municipal pier. “It happened so quick.”  He said he and his sternman had been out hauling traps on Wednesday but were headed home for the day around 1:30 p.m. when the collision occurred. He said they were traveling at about 20 knots with their bow riding high and that he had just sat down to eat a sandwich when his boat rammed into the starboard side of the other boat.  He said earlier reports that the two boats had been near each other a few minutes before the accident were not true. He fishes offshore, while the other lobsterman sets his traps closer to land. He said the other boat appeared to be heading toward a cove where he often set gear when the two boats collided off the west side of Pond Island.

The impact instantly broke the other boat into pieces, he said. The housing structure of the boat tipped away from the point of impact into the water as the separated bow and stern sections capsized into the wake. The sternman from the other boat managed to leap from the sinking stern to his boat, but one man fell into the sea. He said they were able to pull him quickly from the water onto their boat, but the man was unresponsive. They immediately headed for the pier in Winter Harbor, but emergency medical responders who met them there could do nothing. He was pronounced dead at the dock.

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