Anchorage Daily News

The captain and his two most senior crew members who died on the Alaska Ranger when it sank Sunday morning off the Aleutians were the last ones off the vessel and did not make it onto life rafts, according to the Alaska State Troopers.

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Undated photo of Eric Peter Jacobsen, captain of the Alaskan Ranger. Jacobsen is one of the victims in the sinking of the catcher-processor vessel 120 miles west of Dutch Harbor on Sunday.

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The three men and a fourth crew member died from hypothermia after being in the frigid water for roughly six hours, said Sgt. Greg Garcia.

The senior crewman of the vessel "made sure everyone else was secure before they were," he said.

The troopers are continuing their investigation. "There are still a lot of questions out there," Garcia said.

Meanwhile, the Coast Guard this afternoon is continuing to search by air and sea for a fifth crew member missing from the 189-foot fishing vessel. Forty-two other crew members were rescued, some plucked from life rafts and others directly from the sloshing waters.

The Seattle-based Alaska Ranger started taking on water shortly before 3 a.m. Sunday after losing control of its rudder 120 miles west of Dutch Harbor, on Unalaska Island.

The missing crew member was identified today as Satashi Konno of Japan. Chief Petty Officer Barry Lane said the Coast Guard cutter Munro searched for Konno overnight, and aerial searches began at daylight Monday.

Konno, whose age was unknown, was wearing a survival suit, but seas are swelling to 10 feet, and water temperatures are 36 degrees, Lane said. That makes survival tough, he said.

"It's not a pleasant state," Lane said. "We are trying to find him as quickly as possible."

On Sunday, two Coast Guard helicopters plucked crew members from the water and from life rafts, Lane said. At least 13 of them were picked from the water along a mile stretch of ocean. They were wearing survival suits and had strobe lights.

Lane said reports are that all of the crew were able to get into survival suits before the ship sank, including the men who died. The Coast Guard is not yet releasing details on how the men died.

The initial Mayday call came at 2:50 a.m., Lane said. The ship was abandoned by 5 a.m. A half-hour later, help from the Coast Guard arrived. The Alaska Warrior, another catcher-processor fishing nearby that took part in the rescue, arrived at 7 a.m.

One person fell into the water from a rescue basket as it was being lifted into a rescue helicopter. It was not clear if that person was Konno, officials said.

At one point, one of the two Coast Guard rescue swimmers gave up his seat on the helicopter and stayed in a life raft on scene while the helicopter went to refuel about 100 miles away, Lane said.

The cause of the sinking was under investigation. The ship's owner, the Fishing Co. of Alaska, said in a statement that it did "not have sufficient information to determine why the vessel foundered."

The Coast Guard revised its initial reports of relatively calm seas at the time of the rescue and now says waves were up to 20 feet and there were at least 25-knot winds at the time the ship sank.

Twenty-two survivors were taken to Dutch Harbor in the sunken vessel's sister ship, the Alaska Warrior. The ship, which also carried bodies of three victims, arrived about midnight at a private dock. At least several crew suffered hypothermia, Lane said.

The other 20 survivors and the fourth victim were on board the Munro, which remained at the scene Monday helping in the search for Konno.

The company identified the captain as Eric Peter Jacobsen, 65, of Lynnwood, Wash. The other victims were identified as chief engineer Daniel Cook, hometown unknown; mate David Silveira of San Diego; and crewman Byron Carrillo, believed to be from Seattle.

"They were incredibly brave, hardworking men. Our hearts are broken," the company said in a statement.

The captain's son, Scott Jacobsen, told KIRO-TV in Seattle the family wants to know what would cause such a large vessel to sink under conditions it should have been able to withstand.

"Something was wrong, went really wrong, so we're interested in the details," he said. "Things like that don't just happen. My dad's been fishing all his life and he's never had anything remotely close to this happen."

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported Monday that the company owner, Karena Adler, has an address in Mercer Island, Wash., outside Seattle. News media have been unable to reach her for comment.

State environmental regulators were notified that the ship was carrying 145,000 gallons of diesel when it sank, according to Leslie Pearson, emergency response manager for the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation.

According to initial reports, an oil sheen covered an area of a quarter mile by a half mile, Coast Guard spokesman Ray Dwyer said. The strong wind made any cleanup effort unlikely, but the conditions also would disperse a spill more quickly than calm weather, Pearson said.

In 2006, the Fishing Co. of Alaska was among those fined over problems on a catcher-processor ship that it managed. Federal officials said the case stemmed from a multiyear investigation that documented a range of federal violations, including keeping inaccurate information on required reports and fishing contrary to seasonal closures.

In December 2007, an engine fire damaged another of the company's ships, the Alaska Patriot, while it was docked near Dutch Harbor. No one was injured.

Some information in this story was provided by the Associated Press. Check back to adn.com for further updates.

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