By:Laurie Budgar Dwek
Three fishermen rescued in Rockaway Inlet as boat starts to sink
Francis Sabatine knew his clam boat was in trouble Monday night. The 80-foot Derek Robinson was headed for Rockaway Inlet on Aug. 20 with a full load of clams when its wooden hull split open.
"We have high water alarms on the boat," Sabatine said. "The alarm went off and we went down below and noticed we had some water in the boat."
Sabatine said he and his two crew members tried to contain the damage themselves, but winds from the southwest exacerbated the problem. "We weren't getting ahead and more water kept coming in," Sabatine said, which led him to call for help on VHF channel 16.
Rescue units from the Nassau County Police Marine Bureau in East Rockaway and from Coast Guard Station Jones Beach responded promptly.
"You can usually tell [how urgent a situation is] by the tone of a person's voice when they call for help on VHF 16," said Sgt. John Marschhauser from Nassau County Police Marine 9.
Sabatine said that after he provided Global Positioning System information, a police helicopter was overhead within 10 minutes. "Once you know you have a helicopter hovering above you, it takes a lot off your mind," he said.
Two Nassau County Police boats and two Coast Guard vessels also participated in the rescue. Sabatine had high praise for all involved. "All in all, the Coast Guard and the police were very courteous, very good, very prompt," he said.
The rescuers transferred four pumps to the sinking vessel and began to pump more than 600 gallons of water per minute from the boat. Marschhauser said they were pumping for about 45 minutes, and then made temporary repairs to the boat.
The Derek Robinson, which was about 2 1/2 miles off shore when it began to sink, was brought in to shore and moored at Hog Island Channel in Oceanside. The Rockaway Inlet borders Rockaway, Atlantic Beach and the Five Towns area.
Once the boat was safe, Sabatine began efforts to save his clams, using a boom crane. "I couldn't get them off the dock," he explained. "We had 60,000 pounds of clams."
He could have dropped the clams earlier, Marschhauser said, but that involves shutting off the pumps, and saving the boat came first.
Sabatine said he and his crew remained calm throughout the incident. "Nobody panicked. We did what we had to do." But Sabatine has been through rescues before. He said he sank a boat about 20 years ago, and another vessel of his was rescued about five years ago. "What happened wasn't uncommon with a wooden boat," Sabatine said. "It's just part of the game."
