with 17 of its 19 crew members feared dead.
The Emergency Situations Ministry attributed the sinking to a heavy build-up of ice on the trawler, which sank off the coast of the Novaya Zemlya archipelago.
It said two crew members had been rescued by another fishing boat in the area and that searches to try to recover the rest of the crew were ongoing.
I saw this in local news. Pretty horrifying. It said they were hauling gear with all hands on deck when she capsized. Who in their right mind would do that with significant ice buid-up?
Freezing spray creeps me out…
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Hated to go upper Northeast coast carrying heating oil with a Southern boat in the winter. Hate ice and spray as well. Sailing in a blizzard with a hair dryer as a defroster? Don’t miss that at all.
From the picture this look like a converted Norwegian Longliner.
A quick Google search confirm that. She was the typical 1960s longliner Remfisk until 2003:
Here as Remfisk:
Black ice, a mariner’s term for a dreaded form of icing sometimes sufficiently heavy to capsize a small ship. The ice itself is not black, but visually transparent, allowing the dark surface below to be seen through it.
A message from one of the doomed trawers said, Boat deck all iced up; the lads will try to hack it off when daybreak comes. Then the final message came, Heeling right over. Cannot get back.
Trials have confirmed without any doubt that the chief risk to trawlers in the Arctic seas comes from frozen spray and that a normally rigged trawler would be unlikely to remain afloat in conditions of an Arctic gale with more than 60 tons of ice on it.