Alaska Crab Boat Sinking Survivors Reveal Rough Conditions Before Tragedy

Crew Members' Loved Ones Share Their Last Moments Through Calls

KEY POINTS

Only two survivors were found out of the five crew members of the sunken Scandies Rose
The survivors, Dean Gribble Jr. and John Lawler suffered from hypothermia
Gribble said that they endured rough conditions prior to the sinking with the sea rising 20 feet, the winds blowing at 40 mph and the harsh icy conditions
Loved ones shared that some of the crew called them and informed them of the weather conditions just before the boat sank

The two survivors of the Alaskan crab boat Scandies Rose tragedy revealed the rough conditions they endured that led to the boat’s fatal sinking.

Dean Gribble Jr. and John Lawler were the only survivors out of the five crew members that manned the Scandies Rose.

Gribble said that the seas got rough and rose to about 20 feet (6.10 meters) and the winds picked up to 40mph (64kph), coupled with icy conditions, threatened to sink the boat.

“On the 31st we just started listing really hard on the starboard side," Gribble said in a YouTube video, ABC News reported. “From sleeping to swimming was about 10 minutes. It happened really fast. Everybody was trying to get out. Everybody was doing everything they could and it was just really a (expletive) situation.”

From sleeping to swimming in about ten minutes: A survivor of the Scandies Rose speaks about what happened when the crab boat went down off Alaska on New Year's Eve: https://t.co/W2oCOXwDZC
— Hal Bernton (@hbernton) January 3, 2020

“I've fished for 20 years, I know that you do not make it,” he said.

“Everybody can die in those situations and I knew that's what we were going into. We were in the raft for about five hours."

Both Gribble and Lawler suffered hypothermia.

Loved ones of the crew members came forward and shared the last calls they received from them.

Jerri Lynn Smith, ex-girlfriend of the boat’s missing captain, Gary Cobban Jr., said that Cobban called her two hours before the boat sank to wish her a happy new year.

“When I talked to him, he told me the boat was icing and it had a list to it, but he didn’t sound alarmed. He didn’t sound scared,” Smith told the Daily Anchorage News. “The boat ices. The boat ices every winter. It’s just something they deal with. I didn’t worry about it.”

She said that the conditions didn’t seem to worry Cobban so she didn’t think that there were any problems as well.

Meanwhile, another missing crew member, Brock Rainey called his partner, Ashley Boggs of Peru, Indiana, and told her that weather conditions were bad.

“I’m just praying and hoping they find him on land or something,” Boggs told The Associated Press on Thursday and revealed that she and Rainey were planning to get married when he returned.

The other crew members who were not yet found were David Lee Cobban, Arthur Ganacias and Seth Rosseau-Gano.

"I just wish the other guys would have made it," Gribble said. “I kind of feel bad now that I'm here and they're not. Send some love to their families.”