Flaressignaltragedyatsea1dead,2lost.docVIP

Flares signal tragedy at sea: 1 dead, 2 lost Searchers find one body and debris after a crab boat capsizes near Tillamook bar /news/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/113937090917440.xmlcoll=7 Photos: / Wednesday, February 08, 2006 LORI TOBIAS The Oregonian TILLAMOOK -- When skipper Doug Brown caught sight of the two red parachute flares shortly after 1 a.m. Tuesday, he hoped it was just kids hanging out on the beach. I didnt hear anything, no mayday, said Brown, who was piloting the 48-foot crab boat Kilchis back to Tillamook Bay. But that didnt stop him from calling the U.S. Coast Guard and reporting what hed seen. A Coast Guard boat went to investigate and an hour later spotted a life raft from another crab boat, The Catherine M, south of the Tillamook bars south jetty. The 45-foot Catherine M was coming into Garibaldi with a partial load of about 1,200 pounds of crab to sell when it foundered on or near the Tillamook bar about 1:15 a.m. and broke apart with three men aboard, said Todd Anderson, Tillamook County sheriff. Pieces of the boat littered a two-mile stretch of the beach where thelifeboat was first spotted, Anderson said. We dont know for sure (if they were crossing the bar), but we looked at the pieces of the wreckage and it went both inside the jetty and out, Anderson said. To get inside and out, youd suspect the vessel was crossing the bar. Shortly after 4 a.m., local rescue workers found the body of crewman Jeff King, 30, of Garibaldi, on the beach about a half-mile south of the south jetty. Two other men, skipper Craig L. Larsen, 32, of Warrenton and crewman Trona B. Griffin, 30, of Garibaldi, remained missing Tuesday evening. Conditions at sea Tuesday morning were beautiful -- the moon was bright, the winds light and visibility good, Coast Guard officials said. But the bar -- the area between the north and south jetties where several rivers rush out to meet the sea -- was a different story. It was low tide when The Ca