CAPE ELIZABETH, Maine — A steady wind whistled through the frigid air at Trundy Point on Friday morning, as heavy equipment began pulverizing the Tara Lynn II’s hull into fiberglass scrap. The fishing boat wrecked on the shore in the wee hours of Saturday morning, just ahead of a record-setting storm.
With an environmental remediation and salvage plan in place and OK’d by several governmental agencies, landowners and the Coast Guard, workers toiled in sub-freezing temperatures, on icy rocks, trying to remove any reusable fishing equipment from the vessel before breaking it up and hauling away the pieces in dump trucks.
The Tara Lynne II’s owner, David Osier, stood and watched, impassive, as his boat was shredded.
“It wasn’t making money, anyway,” Osier said, shaking his head a little bit. “We were insured, but not enough.”
Besides, the Bristol-based fisherman and business owner has other things to worry about. Osier has two more boats at sea right now, trying to catch enough fish to make a living.
“The thing is,” he said, “when it went aground, it was in the sand and the tide was going out.”
Had the ferocious storm not been on the boat’s heels, Osier believes he could have re-floated it at the next high tide. Instead, the unprecedented storm surge drove the Tara Lynne II onto the rocks, ripping its hull open and spilling thousands of pounds of fish and hundreds of gallons of fuel.
Osier said his crew simply fell asleep with the autopilot engaged. The mechanism can only keep the boat going in a straight line, and without any course correction, it drove the Tara Lynn II directly ashore.
The Cape Elizabeth Fire Department was able to rescue the crew, and no injuries were reported.
Parker Poole, of Determination Marine, is heading up the salvage operation. On Friday, he strode around the scene like a battlefield general, a phone or walkie-talkie perpetually at his ear, directing the complicated and dangerous salvage job.
“We’re hopefully getting this thing leveled off today, getting the mast upright,” he said. “Once we’ve done that, we’ll be able to start unbolting the deck winches and gallows frame, then start safely lifting stuff off.”
Before starting on the winches, Poole’s crew removed the boat’s fuel tank, propeller and shaft.
“Then there’s the heavy radial piston motor that probably weighs about 2,000 pounds,” Poole said, “and there’s what they call the doors, big metal pieces which spread the net apart underwater. Each one weighs 2,000 to 3,000 pounds.”
Besides his own company’s workers, Poole was getting help from Scott Dugas Trucking and Excavating, as well as Material Handling Sales, both out of Yarmouth. In all, more than a dozen people were working on the site Friday morning. Some attended to the boat while others combed the rocks, picking up minute pieces of debris, or gathered fuel-contaminated seaweed.
The Cape Elizabeth Fire Department was also on hand, making sure the public stayed a safe distance away.
“We understand that people want to come down and see this as it has happened, but this is all private property,” Poole said.
The work is expected to continue until Tuesday.
