Atlantic Charger lost, but rescued fishing crew coming home from Frobisher Bay

Rescuers who saved nine crewmen near the mouth of Frobisher Bay in Nunavut yesterday battled "wild North Atlantic waters in one of the roughest and coldest" areas of the world, one of the Royal Canadian Navy's top brass said to update the situation this morning.

"By all reports, they're feeling pretty good right now," said Halifax-based Rear-Admiral John Newton, commander of Maritime Forces Atlantic and the Joint Rescue Co-ordination Centre (JRCC).

He said the crew has been transferred to a Canadian coast guard vessel that will steam the crew home. They're expected to arrive in Harbour Grace, N.L., sometime on Friday. 

"I will admit there are some high-fives that go around," said Newton. "At the same time, we have other cases going on. We can't take our eye off the ball."

Newton said "this has been a very busy year" for JRCC. He said this rescue shows the skill and dedication of the Coast Guard men and women involved in rescue efforts on Canada's east coast.

'They haven't got nothing'

Iona Young, the wife of fishermen Gerard Young, said she spoke to her husband at about 12:30 a.m. AT Tuesday.

"They haven't got nothing left. Only the clothes on their back, that's all," she said. 

"We don't care what they lost, as long as we got them coming home."

The turbot-laden vessel Atlantic Charger began taking on water off Resolution Island early Monday, forcing the nine-member crew from Newfoundland and Labrador to declare an emergency and scramble into a life-raft.

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"So many of them only just had their pyjama pants on, that's all. They had to rush and get their [immersion] suits on," said Young.

Crew 'did a lot of things right'

The closest ship was located about eight hours away from the time the distress call was sent out. 

Coast guard officer Scott Burgwin, control officer for the Maritimes, said the crew spent a tense 12 hours waiting for help.

"The problem with this area of the world is that it's quite vast," he said about challenges rescuers face.

 In addition to the vastness, rescuers were forced to attempt to save the nine-person crew while battling northwest winds of between 35 and 45 knots, with battering waves of three or four metres. 

Newton said it was a massive operation, but that the crew "did a lot of things right":

• They gave rescuers the information they needed to find them quickly.
• They all had immersion suits.
• They had trained for emergencies such as this.
• The crew abandoned ship at the right time,
• They knew how to manage the raft to get the gear dropped from the air so they could be rescued.

The crew was rescued by a Danish ship Monday evening, and were being taken to Iqaluit, a journey of about 400 kilometres.

The vessel, with men from the New World Island area as crew, was in the area fishing a 200-tonne quota of turbot.

The latest reports say the vessel is partially submerged, leaving open the possibility it may be recovered.

The Charger caused quite a buzz in Newfoundland and Labrador's fishing community when it was launched in 2013 at a cost of some $2.5 million.