CAPE MAY — During the fourth day of the continuing Coast Guard Marine Board of Investigation hearing into the sinking of the fishing boat Lady Mary, the mother of one of the crew member’s girlfriends recounted what may have been the last phone call from sinking vessel.

On Wednesday Nov. 4, Janet Greene, mother of Royal Smith Jr.’s girlfriend, testified she received a phone call the morning of the sinking, March 24, between 4:45 a.m. and 5 a.m. she believed was from Royal Smith Jr. The boat was believed to have slipped beneath the waves between 5 a.m. and 5:15 a.m.
Greene said the call was short and muffled and faded out into static.

“It sounded like him, I’m almost sure,” she said.

Greene said Smith would call anytime in the day or night to say hello to his children.
She said she did not sleep soundly when Smith or her sons “were out on the water.” Greene said Smith would call two or three times a day when possible.
Normally there was no problem with reception of calls that were placed from a satellite phone aboard the Lady Mary to her phone number, said Greene, but this call lasted only a second or two.

Paul Adams, a mechanic with Jersey Diesel testified that he installed hydraulic controls, gauges and replaced the power take off on the Lady Mary. He said “all-in-all, the Lady Mary was in good condition." Adams said there were boats in better condition and boats in a “lot worse shape.”

Adams said an undersea photo of the aft control station of the Lady Mary, showing the jog lever indicating the vessel was in motion before it sunk, did not prove whether the power take off of the boat was engaged or not. He said only a photo from the engine room would prove if the power take off was engaged. Volunteer divers did not descend into the engine room of the Lady Mary sitting 210-feet below the ocean’s surface.

Adams said the picture of the boat’s aft control station appeared to show the boat was in motion under a fair amount of throttle.

Steve Taylor, a senior marine electronics technician with MARTEK, testified as to the equipment he installed aboard the Lady Mary, in particular an autopilot system. He said the autopilot system on the Lady Mary was typical of many fishing boats. He looked at the underwater photo of the aft control station and said the jog lever was in a position indicating a port turn. A photo of the boat’s rudder indicator showed a 30 degree port turn, said Taylor.
He said he had installed data on underwater obstructions in one of Lady Mary’s on board computers.

Robert Rippel, a Coast Guard radio expert offered testimony by telephone on two reports he had prepared on HF and VHF radio signal propagation for March 2009. He said the Lady Mary was 57 nautical miles from Cape May when it sank.

Rippel said the 21.82 kilohertz (kHz) radio frequency the Lady Mary would have used to send a Mayday call, extends to about 60 miles off shore. During that time period, a lack of sunspot activity would have made the possibility of the Lady Mary communicating with the Coast Guard in Cape May “possible but challenging.”
Rippel said the signal to noise ratio would have made communication difficult. He said radio communication from the Coast Guard tower in Cape to the Lady Mary would have been very probable.

Attorney Stevenson Lee Weeks, representing the family of the deceased owner of the Lady Mary, Timothy Smith and Roy Smith Sr. who lost both a brother and two sons in the accident, questioned Rippel if the Coast Guard Cape May’s radio transmitter sends most of its energy skyward when a ground wave is needed to get the longest range from the 21.82 kHz frequency.
Weeks said most of the energy from the tower radiated at 23 degrees.

Rippel said the Coast Guard also listened for Mayday calls at night when transmission favor sky waves after the sun has set. He said the tower set a balance between ground waves and sky waves.

This phase of the hearing is expected conclude Thursday Nov. 5. Board Chairman Kyle McAvoy said the Lady’s Mary’s rudder had been recovered and was being examined by the National Transportation Safety Board.
He said an engineering model was being constructed to analyze the stability of the Lady Mary.

The hearing this week has concentrated on the stability, systems and modifications made to the Lady Mary. During the first phase of the hearing in May, testimony looked at the possibility the Lady Mary was struck by a large commercial freighter.
So far this week, that has not been a part of testimony.

Future hearings may be conducted by telephone, said McAvoy.