A federal court jury in Los Angeles found the captain of the dive boat Conception guilty of “seaman’s manslaughter” on Monday, as a result of the fire on Labor Day weekend in 2019 that killed 33 sleeping passengers and one crew member and sank the 75-foot boat in Platt’s Harbor off Santa Cruz Island in Southern California.
The jury decided that the captain, Jerry Nehl Boylan, was guilty of “misconduct, gross negligence and inattention to his duties,” charges that amount to the “seaman’s manslaughter” characterization.
Five crew members, including Boylan, jumped into the water and escaped as the fast-moving fire burned the boat at 3 a.m. on Sept. 2. The passengers who were killed were all sleeping on the lower deck of the three-deck boat.
Evidence at the trial said that Boylan had committed a series of failures as captain, including abandoning ship instead of rescuing his passengers and failing to provide proper training and life-saving measures to his crew.
Earlier, the National Safety Transportation Board found that the owner of the boat, Truth Aquatics, failed to provide effective oversight of the boat and crew operations, and that the lack of oversight allowed the fire to grow. It focused on the absence of smoke detection in all the boat’s accommodations spaces, and inadequate emergency escape routes.
Boylan was found guilty of not providing a night watch or roving patrol, of not holding sufficient fire drill and crew training, and not providing firefighting instruction or using available firefighting equipment.
His lawyers blamed Truth Aquatics for not requiring night patrols or firefighting training. They said Boylan broadcast a distress call before he jumped overboard in an effort to save his life.
After the verdict, U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada said, “This ship captain’s unpardonable cowardice led to the deaths of 34 lives on Labor Day, 2019. As the jury found, this tragedy could have been avoided had Mr. Boylan simply performed the duties he was entrusted to carry out.”
Boylan was free on $75,000 bond. The sentencing hearing is scheduled for Feb. 8.
Read more at https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/07/us/california-boat-conception-captain-manslaughter.html and see the Coast Guard’s video of the fire below:
