Seaman's Kin Files 2nd Suit Over Death On Clam Boat Sinking

Seaman's Kin Files 2nd Suit Over Death On Clam Boat Sinking
By Ed Hayward
Boston Herald
May 7, 1999

Survivors of a man killed when the clamming boat he crewed for sank off Cuttyhunk Island in January have filed the second lawsuit blaming the boat owner for negligence, bringing the total damages being sought to $12 million.

A suit seeking damages of $7 million was filed in U.S. District Court in Boston yesterday on behalf of survivors of Steven Reeves 28, of New Bedford.

Attorneys for relatives of Paul F. Martin, 35, formerly of Fairhaven, filed a similar suit Monday, seeking $5 million in damages and burial expenses of $8000.

Reeves' suit seeks additional damages on behalf of his son, 4-year-old Tyler Steven Reeves.

Both men were killed when the clamming vessel Cape Fear sank in a storm Jan. 8, just an hour from the mouth of New Bedford Harbor.

At the heart of the lawsuits are charges the owner of the 112-foot ship failed to take proper safety precautions and operated an unseaworthy vessel, said attorney Carolyn. M. Latti of Latti Associates, which is representing both families.

"The owners of these vessels push it to the limit and they try to make the most money and these boats are not inspected and then you have these terrible sinkings and tragedies where lives are lost," said Latti.

Warren Alexander, the owner of the boat under the New Jersey corporation Cape Fear Inc., and his attorney, could not be reached for comment yesterday.

A representative at Atlantic Shellfish, a parent company of the ships that make up Alexander's New Bedford-based clamming fleet, declined to comment.

"We have not seen the lawsuits and we were not even aware that they have been filed," said an administrator, who declined to give her name.

Returning with a fully loaded boat, members of the five-man crew were sleeping or relaxing in the wheelhouse when the began to take on water in choppy seas, according to testimony at Coast Guard hearings into the sinking.

Within five minutes after the boat first listed toward her stern, she flipped and rolled into the icy sea.

Her sister ship, the Misty Dawn, motored to the Cape Fear's distress call and managed to pull three survivors - wearing life saving wet suits - out of the sea: Capt. Steven Novack, 36, and crewmen James "Bucky" Haley, both of Virginia, and crewman Joseph Lemieux of Fairhaven.

Martin's body washed up on a Westport beach the next morning, his survival suit open at the chest.

Reeves' body was never recovered and he is presumed drowned.

While the Coast Guard's final report on the sinking has not been released, several details emerged at the fact-finding hearings, including:

• The boat was routinely loaded beyond a "stability rating" recommended after the ship was cut in half and lengthened in 1996.
• In addition, a watertight hatch had malfunctioned and could not be closed.
• The skipper of the Cape Fear failed to hold mandated safety drills on a routine basis and survival suits and emergency beacons did not work properly the night of the sinking.