PROVINCETOWN, Mass. — November 20, 2012 — Tony Avallone stood with a group of fellow fishermen Monday morning on MacMillan Pier and recalled that he once asked Jean Frottier why he didn't leave early in the morning to go scalloping like other fishermen.
"He said he had to drive his daughter to school," Avallone said. "They had a father-daughter relationship like no one else."
Frottier, 69, is believed to have died when his 42-foot fishing vessel, the Twin Lights, capsized and sank two miles off Race Point on Sunday afternoon.
"All he did was work his butt off for his wife and daughter," said Avallone, who crewed for many years on boats owned and captained by Frottier.
Although the Coast Guard has not yet given a reason for the sinking, Avallone and others said they had been told by fishermen at the scene that Frottier's scallop dredge became entangled in a line of lobster traps. When he brought the heavy 800-pound dredge to the surface and hoisted it 12 feet overhead to try and free the line, the combined weight of the dredge and the lobster gear made the boat top-heavy. The pressure from the lobster line also helped drag the stern down, and the Twin Lights began taking on water.
Kurt Schmidt, 72, a lobster diver who partnered with Frottier in various ventures over the years, said his friend could have cut the line and saved his vessel, but he believes Frottier was trying to save the traps for the lobsterman.
With the Twin Lights listing to one side, Frottier attempted to use the engine to pull the line off the dredge but, instead, the vessel suddenly flipped over.
Crewman Eric Rego was able to scramble off the stern and onto the overturned hull, but Frottier was apparently trapped in the wheelhouse as the vessel rolled and floated upside down with the bow pointing up out of the water.
A 47-foot rescue vessel from Coast Guard station Provincetown arrived on scene within 45 minutes of being notified at 11:30 a.m., said Chief John Harker, the officer in charge.
Harker commended the Provincetown fishing vessel Glutton, captained by Beau Gribbin, which was nearby when the Twin Lights capsized, and rescued Rego.
A Coast Guard helicopter and Falcon jet arrived soon after the capsizing. The 270-foot-long cutter Spencer and 110-foot Grand Isle soon joined in the search. Although the boat was floating upside down for a while, the wheelhouse was too deep for rescue swimmers to penetrate, Coast Guard spokesman Rob Simpson said. By the time state police divers arrived on scene, the vessel had already sunk too far down into the water, Simpson said. At some point, the Twin Lights sank to the bottom.
Read the full article at the Cape Cod Times