Merrimack Valley

Coast Guard investigates second boat in Patriot sinking

By Richard Gaines
Staff Writer
Published: January 9, 2009

GLOUCESTER — Just hours after the burial of Matteo Russo, the Coast Guard last night announced a potential break in the investigation into the sinking of the 54-foot trawler Patriot 15 miles southeast of Gloucester.

At a Boston news conference, Capt. Gail Kulisch revealed "the possibility of another vessel in the area at the time of the sinking."

The commander of Sector Boston, Kulisch revealed little about the other boat but said it is possible the second vessel was "directly involved" or a witness to the demise of the Patriot, which Josie and Matteo Russo purchased last year.

All signs of the sinking pointed to a lightning fast catastrophe.

Investigative officers were onboard and interviewing the crew of the second boat, said Kulisch, who earlier had scheduled meetings in Gloucester today with the political leadership and the families of Matteo Russo, 36, and John Orlando, 59.

Kulisch deflected questions about the command decisions that delayed launching the search and rescue operation for more than two hours after the Gloucester Fire Department, responding to a remote fire alarm signal from the Patriot, reported that the vessel was at sea.

Matteo Russo's widow, Josie Russo, said she pleaded with the Coast Guard to launch a search for the Patriot. "When my sister called and said the fire alarm is going off on the boat, isn't that a distress call?" her older brother Dominic Orlando asked.

He and family members spoke to the Gloucester Times about their uncertainties about how and why Russo and Orlando died. Both were considered first-rate boatmen and fishermen, and had reputations for giving safety top priority.

"We responded immediately," Kulisch said at the news conference. She and Nathan Knapp, the regional search and rescue chief, earlier described the circumstances they had to analyze — a fire signal without a mayday and without a known location to search — as "unusual."

Josie Russo, who is pregnant with her second child, said her efforts to raise her husband on the Patriot, including text-messaging, proved futile and that was a very bad sign. The business partners and husband-and-wife team were known to talk and communicate frequently sea to shore.

"I wasn't shocked" over the news that another boat might have been involved, said Dominic Russo, who works for Sea-White Marine Construction and Salvage.

He said the most likely theory was that the Patriot was hit by another boat. The Patriot sank so quickly sometime after midnight Saturday that no mayday signal was issued on the radio and neither fisherman had been able to don the survival suits the boat carried.

Although a fire alarm had gone off, the Coast Guard has said the bodies showed no sign of fire.

While acknowledging no flaws in the response to the Patriot's mishap, Kulisch also said the Coast Guard is conducting "a case study of all aspects of its response to this case," adding that the step is "standard procedure for all search and rescue cases involving the loss of life or a vessel sinking."