The recent fishing vessel tragedy in Gloucester comes as Marblehead remembers local fishermen lost at sea 50 years ago.
In the last days of January 1976, Marbleheaders Steven “Leroy” Haynes, 26, and Capt. Steven “Stevie” Goodwin, 31, died alongside Stephen Kelly, 32, of Newport, Rhode Island, and Candice Stuart, 21, of Newport and Sarasota, Florida, aboard the steel-hulled lobstering vessel, Zubenelgenubi.
The 60-foot craft, named for a quadruple star system in the constellation Libra, left Newport on Jan. 18 on what Goodwin described to his wife, Jo Anne, as a 10-to-12 day trip to move lobster pots from a spot 60 to 70 miles west southwest of the Nantucket Lightship to a new location about 80 miles to the west on Georges Bank.
During their voyage, the North Atlantic was hit by a pair of strong winter storms, the first pushing through January 27-28 and the second, known as the “Groundhog Day gale,” pounding the shore of Cape Cod with 100 mile per hour gusts.
It was after the first storm that the boat and her crew was last heard from, with a Texaco oil tanker picking up a weak radio signal on Jan. 29. A short message, stating: “This is the Zubenelgenubi here,” was the last time the ship and her crew were heard from.
Searching over 66,000 square miles, the Coast Guard found no trace of the vessel after four days.
“[Haynes] was a boy born and brought up in Marblehead,” said Peter Conway, former owner of the Harbor Light Inn and lifelong friend of Haynes. “He had become a fisherman. He worked for a couple of different boats until he finally was asked to sign on with Stevie Goodwin.”
Goodwin was a larger-than-life figure in Marblehead’s maritime community known for his willingness to go where, and when, others would not. Goodwin’s “all-ahead full” attitude to fishing made him and his crew one of the most profitable in the area.
Due to the skill of her captain and the 11 watertight compartments along her hull, the family and friends of the crew believed that there was a chance, if only a slim one, that Zubenelgenubi was still afloat.
“I think one of the most interesting stories about the loss of the Zubenelgenubi was, not just the storm and never seeing or hearing from them again, but the way the town of Marblehead came together,” said Conway.
After the initial closure of the search by the Coast Guard, those close to the missing crewmembers went to then-Congressman Michael Harrington who got in contact with the office of Sen. Ted Kennedy.
“Kennedy’s office got in touch with Senator Tunney of California, Senator Stevenson from Illinois, and all these other politicians,” Conway recalled. “He got them to pressure President Ford to send the Coast Guard back out.”
After some resistance from the Coast Guard, the president ordered search teams back out to search along the jet stream, an area where Goodwin was known to attempt to reach in order to de-ice his vessels in the warmer waters.
After another two days of searching, the Coast Guard finally closed the search. While a petition organized by Lynn Botty, the sister of Haynes, garnered 3,000 signatures in just 24 hours, the search was never reopened.
“We were just hanging on to a prayer,” said Conway. “But we had to. They deserved every possible chance. Stevie Goodwin had a great reputation as a captain and he had a good crew. But, unfortunately, you don’t beat nature.”
Haynes’ friends and family memorialized him with a plaque at Fort Sewell.
