Five men soaking wet and shivering in their underwear told the Hansens of fire that had ravaged their 75-foot commercial scuba diving vessel, the Conception, several hundred feet away.
The men, all crew members, had escaped one of California’s worst maritime disasters in decades, a fire that authorities said Monday appeared to have claimed dozens of lives. A total of 39 people were on board the Conception, and as of late Monday eight had been confirmed dead.
In a distress call apparently made from the Conception and recorded by a Ventura County marine radio channel, a man yells, “Mayday! Mayday! Mayday!” Through the distortion and crackle of the radio call, the man’s fear is apparent. “I can’t breathe!” he screams.
Rescue crews scoured the waters south of Santa Barbara and west of Los Angeles throughout the day Monday, hoping they might find survivors from the Conception, which had been on a three-day holiday excursion to the Channel Islands.
The remains of four victims were recovered by rescue teams Monday, according to Sheriff Bill Brown of Santa Barbara County, and an additional four had been located “on the ocean floor in close proximity to the vessel,” he said. There were six crew members aboard and 33 passengers.
As of Monday afternoon, Coast Guard boats were still conducting search and rescue operations.
A Coast Guard spokeswoman, Capt. Monica Rochester, said late Monday that the search would continue through the night. But she said the crew members were the only known survivors from the Conception.
Passengers on the Conception slept in a single room below deck that was packed with bunk beds, according to a floor plan of the boat on the website of Truth Aquatics, the Santa Barbara-based company that operated the vessel.
It remains unclear what started the fire. But Brown said “you couldn’t have asked for a worse situation.”
It was too early Monday to say whether negligence had played any role in the fire. “The vessel has been in full compliance,” Rochester said at a news conference.
Authorities have not released the names or nationalities of the dead or missing.
This article originally appeared in
.