'Deadliest Catch' Season 16 Episode 8: What happened to the Scandies Rose and where are the survivors now?
It was the start of the winter crabbing season and the 130-foot Scandies Rose was out at sea. It was December 31 and the world waited to welcome the New Year. Except, for five members of the fishing vessel, it was tragically their last day. Around 10 pm, Coast Guard watchstanders received a mayday distress call and swift action followed as the Kodiak Command Center put a chopper in the air along with another craft in search of the vessel. The last reported location was 170 miles southwest of Kodiak.
Captain Gary Cobban Jr, 60, his son, David Cobban, 30, Seth Rosseau-Gano, 31, Arthur Ganacias, 50, and Brock Rainey, 47, were the five who died in the tragedy while John Lawler and Dean Gribble Jr were the survivors who made it into survival suits and a life raft, according to the NationalFisherman report. It also added the duo was lifted from their raft by the chopper crew around five hours of the sinking of the vessel. For those who have followed 'The Deadliest Catch', Gribble has been a feature in the hit reality series.
Gribble, according to IMDb, was seen as the Saga Deckhand in eight episodes. According to the report, Gribble recalled the horrific events that unfolded on a snippet video. “It happened really fast. Everybody was trying, everybody was trying to get out, everybody was trying to do everything they could, and it was just a really shitty situation," he explained.
"We’re in 20-foot seas, it’s blowing 40, icing conditions, worst possible conditions,” he said. “I’ve fished for 20 years, I know you do not make it. Everybody can die in those situations, and I knew that was what we were going into." He also added that the Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon (EPIRB) failed to go off to signal the vessel’s position.
An investigation was launched soon after the sinking. In an interview with Anchorage Daily News, Lawler, the other survivor, in an interview with The Seattle Times wasn't ready to comment on why the vessel went down. However, he did offer a detailed account of their moments of despair. He was asleep when he woke up to the boat listing heavily on the starboard side. While the emergency alarms were not going off, Lawler, a veteran crabber sensed danger.
Lawler and the crew scrambled up the wheelhouse where Captain Cobban Jr relayed the distress signal. By then the Sandies Rose was dipping forcing Lawler to don the insulated survival suits. In his interview, he relived the moment where a zipper stuck and his friend, Gribble helped him pull it up. "Dean and I both wish everyone else would have made it to the life raft with us. We both wish there was more time. But it was out of our hands. We got out of the door, and that’s all we could do," he lamented.
“We saw the bow sticking up like a scene out of the Titanic,” he said. Gribble is currently home with his family and has said it will be a while until he gets back on a boat. And so is Lawler. So far, the United States Coast Guard has not yet determined why the crab boat sank.
The Scandies Rose tragedy will be featured in 'Deadliest Catch' Season 16 Episode 8. 'Deadliest Catch' airs on Tuesdays at 8 pm ET on Discovery.