On March 25, 1990, the call came over the marine radio channel 16. “This is the fishing vessel Sol e Mar,” said a frantic male voice. “We’re sinking. We need help now!” Then the line was cut and there was only static.
Coast Guard radio monitors on the Vineyard and Nantucket tried to raise the caller without success. A short time later another distress call came in, and this time caller was laughing.
Thinking now that the call was a hoax, the Coast Guard ended the matter.
A huge fire erupted in the U.S. Coast Guard boathouse in Menemsha yesterday afternoon, completely destroying the 68-year-old building along with an extended wooden pier that leads to the west dock on the Menemsha harbor. Also destroyed in the blaze were at least one truck and an unknown number of small boats nearby. Miraculously there were no injuries save one minor injury to a volunteer fireman, a Coast Guard public affairs spokesman confirmed last night.
The U.S. Coast Guard has scaled down its deign for a new boathouse in Menemsha, but Chilmark selectmen said this week that it was still too big.
“The height is still an issue,” said selectman and board chairman Frank Fenner at a special presentation Tuesday afternoon. “Everything seems to be growing and we’re trying to contain this a little bit and not get into a position where everyone is up in arms about a mammoth structure.”
Three men were rescued from the water south of the Vineyard Saturday after their 20-foot pleasure craft began taking on water and sank, the Coast Guard said.
Chilmark residents and town officials made it clear they stand ready to safeguard their picturesque Menemsha village this week, as a U.S. Coast Guard design team presented preliminary plans to rebuild the historic boathouse that burned in the July 2010 fire.
Town leaders were adamant that the historic character of the town be maintained in the new structure.
A conch fisherman working off the coast of West Chop got caught in a pot line last summer and was pulled underwater off the stern. He was hauled back in and revived by a quick-witted captain, and thanks to the Coast Guard, was rushed to the hospital where he was stabilized.
Just weeks before and a few miles away, Coast Guardsmen followed a 94-foot scalloper into the port of New Bedford, conducted a boarding and discovered an illegal catch in its hold.
Armed with cameras, plans and ideas, prospective contractors for a new U.S. Coast Guard boathouse in Menemsha toured the historic fishing village last week to visit the site of what will be, once built, the largest structure in the harbor.
The project went out to bid this spring. Four prequalified contractors responded to the Coast Guard’s request for proposals, and last Wednesday those contractors, along with nearly 20 of their subcontractors, walked the property in Menemsha with the agency’s design team.
Chilmark selectmen will ask the U.S. Coast Guard to reconsider its denial of town insurance claims from the Menemsha boathouse fire. On advice of their town counsel, the selectmen decided not to pursue an appeal through the U.S. District Court, at least for now.
Ron Walsh of Edgartown has been certified as a qualified communications watchstander at the United States Coast Guard Station Menemsha. Watchstanders monitor several Coast Guard radio channels for distress calls and dispatch Coast Guard search and rescue vessels.
Mr. Walsh, a member of the Martha’s Vineyard detachment of the Coast Guard auxiliary, underwent eight months of training to become a watchstander. Mr. Walsh is also qualified as a Coast Guard auxiliary vessel examiner.
