By Cris Italia and Joseph Kellard
According to the family attorney, Lawrence Elovich, the Anglers were "negligent and should have postponed the tournament in view of the dangerous seas that existed at that time." Elovich focused on the weather boat that was sent to report on sea conditions before the tournament.
"The procedure was that [the Freeport Anglers Club] were to send out a weather boat to make a determination on the seas as they existed at that time: what was the height of the waves, should this tournament go on or was the weather too bad to proceed? Now, the weather boat allegedly went out that morning," Elovich said.
Two men were on the weather boat; Elovich identified them as George Steiniger, who is a member of the club, and Donald Toby. Both men were questioned by the Nassau County Police Department and their reports state that the men said that they didn't know what time they went out, and they didn't know what time they came back and they did not wear watches that day.
"The weather reports show that the waves at the distance where the weather boat was supposed to go were anywhere from 8 to 10 feet. There were rogue waves of 12 to 14 feet. Now, for those of you who may not be familiar with what that means, it means that those seas were much too large and much too deep, much too heavy for a 25-foot boat to be out on," Elovich said. The Eleni II, which was owned by Robert Hammon of Valley Stream, was a 25-foot pleasure boat, with a twin Yamaha 150 engine.
According to police, the boat may have been overloaded. On the boat were Wright and Peter Quinn from Island Park, Hammon, and his son Robert Jr. The boat was carrying a 30-gallon batch of chum to attract the sharks. The boat may have had difficulty staying afloat if large waves were continuously hitting the boat.
"The night before [the tournament] at the captain's party it was determined by the people that were there that if the waves were more than 5 feet they would not go forth with the tournament and would try to postpone it the following day, which was Father's Day, June 16. That captain's dinner went on until almost 4 o'clock at night and was attended by four members of the Coast Guard," Elovich stated.
He also mentioned that other participants that came back early experienced waves of 8 to 10 feet and were hitting the boats at 5-second intervals. "Something smells and it's not the fish," Elovich said about the way Anglers handled the event.
When asked why he thought the event wasn't postponed, Elovich ripped into Anglers again. "Stupidity. Financial, maybe, because the next day was Father's Day and therefore many of the boaters would not have gone out that day because of the fact that it was Father's Day."
Robert Wright was never found. Both the bodies of Peter Quinn and Robert Hammon were found, and rescue workers never recovered any remains of the boat.
