A 77-foot trawler from Point Judith, R.I., beached at dawn Friday while heading for Manasquan Inlet. Towed off from Point Pleasant Beach, N.J. about 40 hours later, the F/V Susan Rose then sank about 1,000 yards offshore.
The crew of four disembarked on the beach Friday, dropping down from the boat with help from Point Pleasant Beach emergency responders. Efforts to defuel, lighter and salvage the boat began that day and the Dann Towing 85’x30’x11.5’ tugboat Shannon Dann got underway from Staten Island in anticipation of a high tide for the recovery effort.
After an unsuccessful first pull Saturday morning, the Susan Rose was refloated after midnight. But during the tow away from the beach the fishing boat sank in about 48 feet of water. The Coast Guard reported the channel into Manasquan Inlet was not obstructed, although mariners were advised to exercise caution in the area south of the inlet where the sinking location was marked with an orange ball buoy.
Built in 1977 by Steiner Shipyard in Bayou La Batre, Ala., the 77’x23’ 142 gwt Susan Rose was one of the Town Dock commercial fleet, homeported at Point Judith, R.I., and frequently working out at other Northeast ports depending on fishing seasons.
Jim Lovgren, a board member of the Fishermen’s Dock Cooperative in Point Pleasant Beach, told the Asbury Park Press the Susan Rose had been fishing in the area for black sea bass and fluke and packing out at the co-op.
In summer 2022 a deckhand on the Susan Rose went overboard in the early morning hours of July 1, 2022 as the boat was passing Nomans Land on its way to New Bedford, Mass., according to news reports at the time.
The crew contacted the Coast Guard at 1:39 a.m. and watchstanders launched a search by aircraft and cutters, but the search ended July 3 with no sign of the 54-year-old man.
