Fishing Boat Lost Off Nantucket In 2008 Washes Up In Spain
BOSTON (CBS) - A boat lost off the coast of Nantucket more than three years ago has turned up off the coast of Spain.
Two men were ejected from the 26-foot fishing boat The Queen Bee in six-to-eight foot seas back on August 25, 2008.
The men swam to shore, but the boat drifted off.
WBZ-TV's Jim Armstrong reports
"I had written the boat off three years ago, saying the boat is salvage, it's never coming back, it's on the bottom of the Atlantic," says Scott Douglas, the boat's owner.
It was found 20 miles off the northern coast of Spain, January 17. That's 1,241 days later.
WBZ NewsRadio 1030's Rod Fritz reports
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"This is certainly an unusual story," says Lt. Joe Klinker of the Coast Guard. "This is the first time I've heard of in my career to find the vessel overseas and this is certainly the first time we've gotten a call from Spain."
The U.S. Coast Guard's International Ice Patrol estimates the boat drifted about 3,500 nautical miles in three years and five months.
"It's kind of interesting to think about where in the world this vessel could possibly have traveled," says Klinker.
When the boat was pulled onshore in Spain last Tuesday, it still had "Nantucket" written on the side.
"What did this boat do as it went up the Atlantic coast, through winters and gales and storms, you know? How did this incredible little boat survive and make it to Spain three and a half years later?" wonders Douglas. "The friends it must have made with birds and fish and the boats that it saw pass by. It's really, you know, it really is an amazing story."
WBZ-TV's Jim Armstrong contributed to this report.
