'The hardest 17 hours of his life'
The Katmai sank early Wednesday in the Aleutian Island chain about 1,300 miles southwest of Anchorage, killing five crew members.
The Seattle-based company identified the survivors as Capt. Henry Blake, 40, of Worcester, Mass., and crew members Adam Foster, 23, Shoreline, Wash., and Harold Appling, 30, and Guy Schroeder, 50, both of Anchorage.
The four crewmen wore survival suits and were found in a life raft after spending about 17 hours in the ocean.
Rescuer said they didn't expect to find any survivors as they scanned the water by helicopter.
"He says, 'I got a raft at 3 o'clock.' And I kind of go, 'what?' And he says, 'yeah, I got a raft,"' said Petty Ofc. Dave Coats. "'He says, 'yeah, we see it. They're waving at us.'"
Coats then got in the water and began to head toward the raft.
"I wasn't making much headway. I don't know how long I was in the water trying to swim to it. But I finally got up to it.
"(They) said 'thank God you're here. Thank God you're here,"' he said.
Adam Foster, a survivor, told his brother, Tyler, those had been "the hardest 17 hours of his life."
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Those 17 hours were nearly as unbearable for the crew's family members back at home as they helplessly waited to learn more about the conditions of their loved ones.
"I was at work and the CEO of the Katmai Fishing Company called to let me know that there had been an accident, that the ship had sank," said Adam's mother, Rebecca Foster. "And at that time, they had found no survivors, just a little bit of debris.
"I had to ask him to repeat it to make sure I was hearing correctly what he was telling me."
Rebecca spent the next hours in a nightmarish haze, not knowing whether her son was dead or alive. When she finally learned her son had survived, she could not wait to hear his voice.
"He did a lot of crying. It was very emotional," she said. "The thing he's repeated the most is how sad he is that they couldn't have had more survivors, and how scared he was and how hard he fought for his life.
"He said that all the guys just supported each other and worked together as a team. If the raft tipped over, they worked together to get it back over and get the men back in the boat."
The five who died were Jake Gilman, 22, Camas, Wash.; Joshua Leonguerrero, 19, Spanaway, Wash.; Cedric Smith, 38, Portland, Ore.; Glenn Harper, 35, Portland, and Fuli Lemusu, 44, Salem, Ore., Young said.
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Friends said Cedric Smith, a 10-year Alaska fishing veteran, urged younger kids to seek "a better life" free of gangs and violence.
"He loved what he did," said Tony Ragland, a friend of Smith. "He loved it. And I'm sure that when he went down he was trying to save somebody, trying to help somebody."
"His words were, 'When it's my time, it's my time,'" said Woody Williams, another friend of Smith. "But it wasn't his time. It wasn't his time."
Officials at Jake Gilman's alma mater, Camas High School, described him as a character who never got angry.
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"He was one of those kids you remember," said Ellise Anderson, the school's attendance monitor. "Just a kid who was always smiling."
Still missing are Carlos Zabala, 30, of Helena, Mont., and Robert Davis, 49, of Deming, Wash. The Coast Guard resumed the search for the two men at first light on Friday.
Even though it's been more than two days since the ship sank, the Coast Guard still considers this a rescue mission.
"We wouldn't be continuing the search if we didn't have any hope," said Petty Officer Levi Read. "We found four survivors that had been in the water for 17 hours. We understand it's been longer than that. But we are continuing the search because we have a reasonable belief that we will find them."
Both a C-130 airplane and a helicopter aided in the search. The Coast Guard cutter Acushnet, whose home port is Ketchikan, also joined the search from its patrol in the Bering Sea.
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The weather had calmed Friday, Read said, with 2-foot seas, 20 mph winds and visibility of 10 miles. The water temperature is 43 degrees.
"That is a lot better than what we have been searching in," he said.
The crew of the Katmai sent an e-mail to a nearby vessel, saying the vessel was taking on water in the rear, where the steering was housed, the Coast Guard.
A marine board will be established to investigate the deadly sinking.
Capt. Mark Hamilton, a Coast Guard Commander in Alaska, on Friday said the three-member panel will convene as early as this weekend to begin taking testimony on the sinking of the Katmai, a fish processing vessel.
Those giving testimony will include four survivors. The bodies of five other crew members have been recovered, and the Coast Guard continued to search Friday for two missing crewman.
Officials say they don't know the cause of the sinking, which occurred Wednesday in severe weather conditions. Hamilton says the National Transportation Safety Board will also investigate.