Latest news with #PaulArsenault
Boston Globe
a day ago
- General
- Boston Globe
‘He was like a hero': Missing Cape Cod fisherman and girlfriend found dead in sunken boat off Eastham
'He left and said he's not coming home until he filled his 30-pound bag,' Paul Arsenault said. 'So when I got a call from the harbormaster asking if I'd seen him, I didn't think nothing of it.' Advertisement The harbormaster in Orleans reported the boat missing after seeing Paul Arsenault's truck at the marina on Tuesday, two days after the boat left the harbor, the Coast Guard said. Paul Arsenault said he believes the 30-foot, white-hulled vessel, which his brother had spent six years saving up to buy, got 'hooked up on a wreck that was on the bottom of the ocean.' 'It happened so fast that they were found in the wheelhouse — no life jackets, no distress call,' he said. Arsenault had worked on boats all his life, his brother said. Owning his own boat was 'Shawn's dream' and Sunday's trip was 'only his third time out,' his brother said. 'He just got new radar, a fish finder — he was excited,' he said. Advertisement The search began Tuesday morning. The boat was last believed to be about two miles off Chatham, according to a cellphone ping, the Coast Guard said. Search crews were sent to both sides of Cape Cod because 'phone pings have a high degree of variability,' according to Coast Guard spokesman Quinn LeCain. 'The ping put them offshore in Chatham on the wrong side ... they were found off shore inside the bay,' LeCain said. The Coast Guard issued an urgent marine information broadcast Tuesday morning to notify the public about the emergency, and launched an extensive search of the fishing area in Cape Cod Bay. After a recreational fisherman spotted the missing boat on Wednesday, a Coast Guard cutter that had been searching overnight arrived at the scene within 30 minutes, and divers identified the boat. 'Everybody loved him,' Arsenault said of his brother. 'He was very loved in his community.' Arsenault said his brother had a generous spirit, someone who always looked out for those in need in his neighborhood in Orleans. 'There was one gentleman with Parkinson's ... my brother would cook him dinner every night and walk it down to him,' Arsenault said. 'That's the kind of person he was.' Witnesses told the Coast Guard they saw equipment thrown overboard shortly after Arsenault's boat left the dock, Coast Guard Commander Cliff Graham said in a statement. The agency has not said what equipment might have been discarded. 'I don't know what they said he threw overboard,' Paul Arsenault said. 'I can't imagine. All that stuff means a lot to him.' Arsenault and Daley had been dating for several months and were both experienced on boats, Paul Arsenault said. Advertisement 'They were absolutely nuts about each other,' he said. What caused the boat to sink remains under investigation, the Coast Guard said. 'He's like a hero to me. I can't even fathom he's gone,' Paul Arsenault said. Sarah Mesdjian can be reached at
CBS News
2 days ago
- CBS News
Missing fishing boat found underwater off the coast of Cape Cod
It's a tragic ending to a search that had been ongoing this week, the sunken white hulled Seahorse was spotted about two miles off Brewster beaches by a recreational boater just before 2:00 Wednesday afternoon. Shawn Arsenault, 64, left his slip at Rock Harbor marina in Orleans Sunday morning to go clamming with his girlfriend. "He's been a fisherman all his life. He's ran many boats from New Bedford to Provincetown," said his brother Paul Arsenault. "He told me he wasn't coming back until he got his 30-bag limit." That usually takes only a day, but when his white Ford pickup truck was still in the marina parking lot two days later it raised concerns, including reports of unusual behavior the day he left the harbor. "The fact that he didn't come in with the tide that evening wasn't necessarily alarming. The curious part was that the day he left the harbor he was discarding waste off the side of the boat," said Orleans Harbormaster Nathan Sears. Discarded radar dome, GPS That waste included a radar dome, and a GPS found on a nearby beach. The harbormaster says his boat had recently been running rough, but repairs seemed to put him back in business. Now an investigation into how the thirty-foot fishing vessel Seahorse went down will answer many questions. Photo of the missing 30 foot fishing boat Seahorse. U.S. Coast Guard "These are quahog draggers, they're dragging big steel cages behind the boats. If they get hung up on the bottom, especially if you're fishing in the dark, they can roll the side of the boat and go down pretty fast," said Sears. The empty slip at the marina has been an eerie sight this week, and neighbors at his Orleans housing complex say they've been shaken by the news. "The community has been reaching out, giving hugs and saying prayers. We all just miss him so terribly," said Melissa Phillips. Arsenault's brother says his concern has grown by the minute and had this worry all along. "I'm beginning to think I'll never see my brother again," he said.
