MARITIME MYSTERY DEEPENS: COAST GUARD CALLS OFF SEARCH FOR MISSING TRAWLER
By Arthur Finch, Staff Writer
ANCHORHEAD — The U.S. Coast Guard has officially suspended its search for the F/V Star of Bengal and its six-man crew, missing since departing Anchorhead's outer harbor one week ago. The decision concludes a massive five-day air and sea search covering over 10,000 square nautical miles.
The Star of Bengal, a 65-foot wooden side-trawler skippered by veteran Capt. Elias Vance, 58, was last seen by the crew of the passing freighter SS Persephone on the evening of October 24th. The Persephone's log notes the trawler was "making steady headway" into a "moderate bank of evening fog, not considered unusual for the season."
No distress call was ever received. The first indication of trouble came when the vessel failed to return to port as scheduled the following morning.
Despite favorable conditions in the days following its disappearance, search teams have failed to locate any definitive trace of the vessel. No debris field, no life raft, no oil slick. It is as if the ship, and the men aboard her, were simply erased from the surface of the sea.
"It's one of the damnedest things I've seen in forty years," said Senior Chief Petty Officer Richard Miller, who coordinated the search effort from the Anchorhead station. "Ships don't just vanish. They leave something behind. A cork, a barrel, something. This… there's nothing. The sea just swallowed them whole."
The mystery is compounded by a single, cryptic final transmission received by a amateur radio enthusiast in Port Townsend. At approximately 22:17 on the 24th, a burst of static-heavy audio was logged on a marine frequency. The voice, believed to be that of crewman Michael O'Brien, was reportedly distorted and frantic. Only three words were clearly intelligible:
"…light in the fog…"
The transmission was followed by a sound the enthusiast described as "metal screaming, like a hull being torn apart," and then dead air.
The Coast Guard has declined to officially comment on the recording, citing the poor quality and unverifiable source.
The disappearance of the Star of Bengal has cast a long shadow over this tight-knit fishing community. A memorial service for the lost crew is planned for Sunday at St. Jude's Church.
Capt. Vance is survived by his wife and two daughters. He was two months from retirement.