The Flagler County Sheriff’s Office confirmed this morning that debris from a fishing boat that disappeared on Oct. 14 with three men aboard was found washed up on the beach at Jungle Hut Road, mirroring similar recent finds in St. Johns and Volusia counties and adding to the near-certainty that the men have perished. The Coast Guard suspended its search on Oct. 26.
Dalton Conway, Caleb Wilkinson and Tyler Barlow boarded the 31-foot Carol Anne near Mary Ross in Brunswick, Ga., as fishing contractors and fished some 80 miles off the coast. They were expected back four days later. They did not return. The accumulating sightings of debris south of the Georgia coast have been like recurring memorials to their loss.
“A piece of a boat washed up on shore this morning just south of Jungle Hut Road in the Hammock,” the Sheriff’s Cmdr. Ryan Emery wrote in an internal email this morning. He attributed the find to the Carol Anne.
“The piece is easily identifiable from the paint scheme. I think this is the first piece located in Flagler County and there have been other items located in St. Augustine and Volusia County,” Emry wrote. “The pieces are believed to be washing up due to the rough surf from the storm. The piece was collected to be turned over to the Coast Guard and they have been notified.”
The Coast guard suspended the search less than a week after the boat was reported lost. Families of the lost fishermen had taken heart from the fact that, the same week, the Coast Guard had ended its search for a missing vessel off Washington State’s Olympic Peninsula, but a survivor from that boat, the Evening, was found in a life raft and picked up by a passing boat.
The families of the Brunswick fishermen have not been as fortunate. They drafted their own search teams of volunteers, including the Cajun Navy–private boat owners who volunteer in search and rescue efforts–and set up a GoFundMe page to pay for the search. They suspended that search at the end of November.
“It is with great sadness that we are informing everyone that the helicopter that landed at 4:38 P.M. today will be our last flight unless we receive new information,” Chris Barlow wrote on Facebook on Nov. 29. “We are suspending our active search effort as we have exhausted every lead we currently have, although we have found numerous boat wrecks and debris none have been linked to the Carol Ann.”
Me says
Very sad, gone too soon. RIP.
Concerned Citizen says
A very large section of a hull has recently washed up on shore near the resort. I hope they follow up on that