| The Transportation Safety Board of Canada reports that "While returning from the fishing grounds, the Kella-Lee encountered heavy seas off Cape Scott, British Columbia. It heeled to starboard, progressively down-flooded and sank shortly after 2352 on 25 October 2001. Its three crew members and the owner/operator abandoned the vessel for a liferaft. A search and rescue operation rescued two crew members and recovered the bodies of the third crew member and the owner/operator, both of whom had succumbed to hypothermia and drowned." "The Kella-Lee was built as a small fishing vessel of closed construction, with an all-welded double chine steel hull and an aluminium-alloy deck-house. The wheelhouse, crew accommodation and engine-room space were located forward of midships, while an insulated fish hold, a small freezer compartment and the lazarette were located aft. The fish hold was divided into nine sections by portable pen-boards. It had a fibreglass weather-tight hatch cover, which had two small access hatch covers set into it. All covers could be battened down, however the two smaller covers were not secured. Below the main deck the hull was sub-divided by three transverse watertight bulkheads into the following compartments: forward crew accommodation space; engine-room; fish hold, and lazarette space. The deck-house was accessed through the starboard side wheelhouse weather-tight door and through a dutch door fitted at the after end of the superstructure. The dutch door gave direct access to the starboard side of the after working area of the main deck (see Appendix A and Appendix C). Access to the engine-room was by way of two flush-fitting, lift-out hatches, fitted into the wheelhouse and galley decks. Oil fuel tanks were located at the port and starboard sides of the engine-room and the lazarette space. The potable water tank was located under the forward crew compartment. The wheelhouse was equipped with navigation and communications gear which included two radar sets and video plotter; two very high frequency (VHF) radios; global positioning system (GPS); auto pilot and depth sounders. The radar sets were interfaced with an electronic chart display system." |
