Final call from a boat going down

By Wayne Parry

Associated Press

CAPE MAY - Shortly before 5 a.m. on March 24, Janet Greene's phone rang in her North Carolina home.

A light sleeper, she grabbed it on the first ring, knowing the call was likely to be from Royal Smith Jr., a commercial fisherman who had two sons with her daughter, Stacy.

"I said, 'Hello, hello?' " she said. "A muffled voice sounded exactly like his. It sounded like he said, 'Hey,' and it just went off into static."

Satellite phone records show the call came from the Lady Mary, the scallop trawler that sank that morning 60 miles off Cape May, killing Smith and five others.

But what they can't provide is the answer to a question that has tormented Smith's family: Was it a call for help from the sinking ship, or the last word of an unsuspecting crew member just before disaster struck?

Greene testified yesterday at a Coast Guard hearing investigating the disaster.

The boat's owner, Royal Smith Sr., and his lawyer, Stevenson Weeks, say they believe the Lady Mary was struck by another vessel that left the area. That theory is one of several the Coast Guard is examining.

Greene said it had not been unusual for the younger Smith to call to say good morning to Stacy and the boys as they got ready for school.

"He would call just to say hi to the boys, or to say, 'I'm doing OK, Miss Janet. We'll be home soon,' " she testified.

It was hard to tell if he sounded scared because the call lasted only seconds, Greene said.

"It sounded like there was a problem, but I can't say for sure," she said in an interview after her testimony. "I figured that [the call] died out, and he would call later."

The call came around the time the Lady Mary sank, authorities say, based on navigation equipment that periodically sent information on its location.

Smith's call may have been the first of two communications from the Lady Mary just before it sank. On Monday, the captain of a Massachusetts fishing boat working nearby that morning said he had heard what could have been a faint Mayday radio call. But, he said, he did not alert the Coast Guard because no one responded to his radioed request for more information, and there were no flares visible in the area.

The Lady Mary was due back in Cape May the day it sank.

Greene said not knowing for sure what had caused the disaster had been painful.

"Only God can answer those questions," she said.

The hearing will resume today with mostly technical testimony, but Coast Guard officials said sessions might be required later this year to discuss physical evidence from the ship.