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For Salvagers, Trouble Means Business

This article appeared in the August 14, 2001 Atlantic City Press as written by John Curran (APW)
   Brigantine - When the mayday call comes crackling in over his Motorola VHF radio, John McLaughlin never knows what it's going to be.
   He just knows someone - or something - is in trouble on the water.
   Last year, it was an F-16: The jet was ditched in the ocean after its pilot ejected. McLaughlin's marine salvage company, Sea Tow, pulled up the shattered jet from the ocean floor - "in about a thousand pieces." Last week, it was a 700-pound leatherback sea turtle: It got tangled in a fishing net. The other night, it was a 62-foot sportfishing boat: Stalled off barnegat from what the owner said was contaminated fuel. The boat was towed to the Farley Marina in Atlantic City.

   "Every Day is different," McLaughlin, 44, said Thursday while standing at the helm of the Cape Hatteras, a 48-foot workboat used for big jobs.
   McLaughlin's company isn't really McLaughlin's company.
  He operates two of the 78 franchises owned by Sea Tow Services International Inc., a Southold, N.Y.-based company.
   It grew out of the U.S. Coast Guard's 1983 decision to stop aiding stranded boaters who weren't in life-threatening distress, according to Sea Tow Services founder Joe Frohnhoefer.
   "It's taken the burden off the tax-payers, who are no longer paying the Coast Guard to do these things," he said. "With all the drug interdiction and the growth of recreational boating, it was just too much to handle. They didn't have the boats, or the manpower."
   Sea Tow, one of several companies that stepped in to fill the void left by the Coast Guard, is the marine equivalent of the American Automobile Association (AAA).
   For a $95 annual membership, it provides unlimited towing, fuel deliveries and jump starts. For non-members, SOS calls can get pretty expensive: The daytime towing rate is $150 per hour.
   The headquarters for McLaughlin's two Sea Tow franchises - Sea Tow Central Jersey and Sea Tow Atlantic City - is a three-story cedar shingled bayfront building in Brigantine. With 14 boats, 15 employees and a slew of radio systems at its disposal, Sea Tow covers 75 miles of New Jersey coast - come hell, high water or both.
   The routine calls involve stranded or grounded boaters in the back bays or the Intercoastal Waterway. On Wednesday night, Sea Tow got a call from the owner of a Waverunner that had stalled in a salt marsh behind Brigantine. The operator had waved down a boater, gotten a ride back to his home and now wanted to retrieve the vessel.
   The Coast Guard won't help in such situations.
   "If it's flooding, sinking, fire or something else serious like that, we go," said Chief Tom Dougherty, a boatswain's mate at the Coast Guard's Atlantic City station. "If not, we put out a Marine Assist Request Broadcast, which invites anyone to come to their assistance. Anyone can respond: a good Samaritan or a commercial salvager."

SAVIORS & PIRATES

   Sea Tow boats, which patrol even when they are not summoned, often are nearby.
   To the boater in distress, Sea Tow is a savior. When the bill comes, they don't always feel the same. "When we rescue them, they're happy. When they're safe at home, or on the dock, we're pirates," McLaughlin said, shrugging.
   Sea Tow's captains pride themselves on a quick response. In the office, a video camera is trained on the VHF radio and connected to a VCR. The video-taped record allows Sea Tow to keep track of what time a call came in and what details it gave about the emergency.
   "Ninety-nine percent of the time, when something bad happens, we're there before the Coast Guard," said Capt. Joe Whitmore, 35, a veteran Sea Tow captain. "But people don't always know what a bad situation they're in. When I tell them 'Put your lifejackets on,' you can see it in their faces."
   Bad things do happen. And when they do, Sea Tow captains and crewmembers become more than mariners.
   Last October, Whitmore's 24-foot center console Sea Tow towboat was among the first on the scene after a 60-foot Viking yacht plowed over a small fishing boat adrift off Long Beach Island. McLaughlin's son, a crewhand on the towboat, jumped into the water to see if there were any signs of life on the capsized fishing boat. He found the body of owner Thomas Decker, 58, who was already dead.
   Less than 20 percent of Sea Tow's work happens on the open sea. But it's often some of the most dramatic:

The F-16 crash occurred August 31, 2000 when a fighter jet from the 177th Fighter Wing in Egg Harbor Township crashed into the ocean off Brigantine after experiencing engine failure. Sea Tow won the job as salvage master, directing the retrieval of the $18 million aircraft from the ocean floor.
   "It took us four days just to locate it. We started out with 100 eyewitnesses on the beach who said 'It went down right there.' Eventually we found it - 2 1/2 miles off the beach," McLaughlin said.

When the Lisa Kim, a 107-foot clamming vessel, accidentally became grounded on the beach in front of Resorts Atlantic City casino, Sea Tow directed the salvage. It was freed a day later.

   Sometimes, just getting back to port is an adventure. "You go offshore to get a boat in bad weather and now you're coming back with the boat being towed, its crewmembers on board with you and 8-foot waves breaking over your bow," Whitmore said. "They all think you're just doing your job, but your really saving yourself."
   Then there was the turtle rescue, which came in response to a plea for help from the Marine Mammal Stranding Center. The 5-foot-long turtle was freed after a Sea Tow boat took center technician Jay Pagel three miles out, to the recreational boat Melinda. Reaching over the side, Pagel was able to cut the nets and free the turtle. That's now McLaughlin's favorite rescue story.
   "Really, we're here to help. That's what makes the job so gratifying," he said.