Lady Mary Owner Testifies to Condition of Boat

CAPE MAY — Royal Smith Sr. testified as a witness Tuesday, Nov. 3 at a Coast Guard Marine Board of Investigation hearing here describing the steering controls and throttles on the Lady Mary, the fishing vessel he owned with his sons that sank March 24 taking the lives of six crew members.
Using photos and posters, he described how the boat could be operated from both the wheelhouse and an aft position near the winch. Looking at a photo of the aft console, 210 feet below the ocean’s surface, he said the jog lever indicated the Lady Mary was in a hard left turn before it sank.
A rudder indicator also showed the boat was in a hard port (left) turn or at about 30 degrees. Smith said there would be no reason to leave the rudder in that position. He said it should have been in the zero position with the scallop dredge back on deck. The dredge is on the deck of the Lady Mary as it sits on the sea floor.
Smith said the photos showed the boat was in gear to move forward with the throttle position showing a little speed. He testified that the Lady Mary had backups for most of its systems.
“This boat would do more things than the average boat would do,” said Smith.
Marine Board of Investigations Chairman Cmdr. Kyle McAvoy asked Smith what was the normal size of his crew. He said the boat normally had five members but had a crew of seven on its final trip.
Smith said the crew needed to bring back a large haul of scallops to pay a standing $1,200 fine. He said they generally hired people they had known for a long time, those who were found on the docks.
Smith said little paperwork was kept on crew members other than a manifest that was needed if the boat was boarded by the Coast Guard. As many as seven men lived on the boat and a sister boat, the Mary Liz, in winter when not operating, he said.
Smith answered question from the board for six hours covering most every aspect of the Lady Mary. He said safety drills were conducted with the crew once per month which he said were very experienced in commercial fishing.
LCDR Tracy Phillips asked Smith in what language were orders given to the crew. He said orders were in English. Three members of the crew were Spanish-speaking.
McAvoy questioned if Smith was aware of drug use on the boat. Smith said he never saw drug use.
National Transportation Safety Board Investigator Brian Curtis asked if the Lady Mary would ever “lay on its dredge,” meaning the dredge would remain in the water and be used as a sort of anchor. Smith replied that no boat ever “lays on a single dredge” which is the configuration of the Lady Mary except when the ocean is dead calm.
He said a full dredge is sometime left on deck when weather was too rough to safely unload it.
Phillips questioned what process took place if the dredge snagged something on the ocean floor. Smith said the only thing a scallop boat could get hung up on was a submerged wreck. He said wrecks were often not where they were indicated on charts.
At the close of the day’s hearing, the board examined VMS tracking data of where the Lady Mary was during its final hours. At midnight March 24, it was moving to the northwest at four knots. By 12:30 a.m., it was heading in a westerly direction at only 1.9 knots.
The Lady Mary appeared to drift for the next three and a half hours the night it sank at less than two knots. Smith said the crew may have been resting with one man standing watch. He said at that slow speed the boat was not pulling the dredge.
Smith said he always kept the engine running especially in rough seas. He said the boat would not be “laying on the dredge” in the rough seas and high winds that night.