Christopher Hutchinson said he and his two crew members were on their way back to the mainland Saturday afternoon after a day of hauling traps when the seas and winds quickly intensified, causing his 45-foot lobster boat to flip.
“We got hit by one large wave, and that pushed us into another. The windows to the wheelhouse blew out, and we began taking on water quickly,” Hutchinson said. “I’m not 100 percent sure what happened next, but the next thing I recall is being in the wheelhouse and the boat is upside down in the water.”
Hutchinson, 26, said he managed to get out of the wheelhouse and made it to the surface, where he climbed on top of his vessel, No Limits.
The two crew members – Tom Hammond, 27, of Rockland and 15-year-old Tyler Sawyer, who lived in St. George and Waldoboro – are still missing and presumed dead.
“I kept screaming for Tom and Tyler, but I didn’t hear or see them again,” Hutchinson said.
The captain said he clung to the bottom of the boat by holding on to the keel and the bronze pipes of the keel cooler.
“I never thought I would make it,” Hutchinson said, as he described being pounded by waves he said were 10 feet and greater.
The boat flipped at about 11 a.m. several miles west of Matinicus, he said. The emergency position indicating radio beacon, or EPIRB, and life raft popped out from under the vessel more than two hours later, he said. The EPIRB activated at 1:36 p.m.
When he saw the raft come to the surface, Hutchinson said he swam the 15 to 20 feet to the raft and climbed on board. The raft was about 4 feet in diameter and was enclosed with a canopy.
He said he fired off one flare and waited. Eventually, he spotted a helicopter and fired off another flare.
A MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter from Air Station Cape Cod arrived on scene at about 4:30 p.m., lowered a bucket down to the raft and hauled Hutchinson up to the helicopter. He was taken to Maine Medical Center in Portland for observation and was released from the hospital at 9 p.m. Saturday.
The Coast Guard and Maine Marine Patrol undertook a 17-hour search for the two missing crew members with the helicopter, a 47-foot boat out of the Coast Guard station in Rockland and a Marine Patrol vessel.
The Coast Guard suspended the search Sunday after probing about 130 square miles of ocean.
Hutchinson said Tuesday that when the trio left the Linda Bean dock in Tenants Harbor early Saturday morning, the wind was not blowing. He said he has fished the area off Matinicus known as 11-mile ridge for six years. He said his vessel was one of the larger ones, and he was not concerned about the weather.
“I’ve never seen the wind and seas pick up so fast,” he said.
Hutchinson said he checked the weather at 10 a.m., and the winds on nearby Matincius Rock were reported at 22 knots. The crew hauled in one more line of 15 traps, then decided to head home, he said.
Hammond joined Hutchinson’s crew about six weeks earlier and Sawyer about a month earlier, the captain said. Hutchinson said he has known Hammond for about six years.
Rockland fisherman Donald Johnson said Tuesday he was friends with Hammond. He said the Rockland man had fished for a Matinicus Island lobster fisherman earlier in the year and later worked at the Market Basket in Rockport.
Hutchinson and Johnson said Hammond was a hard-working man.
Sawyer dropped out of school after attending Medomak Valley High School in Waldoboro, Hutchinson said.
MVHS Principal Harold Wilson confirmed Tuesday that Sawyer had been a student at the school last year and remembered him as a good person.
“He was always respectful,” Wilson said.
The Coast Guard will be conducting an investigation into the sinking. Hutchinson said he had three survival suits on board but said the boat flipped so quickly no one was able to put them on.
Hutchinson said he plans to return to fishing. His vessel was insured.
