Just saw this on the newswire:
CG AIR STATION CAPE COD -- Four fisherman are back on dry land this morning after the Coast Guard plucked them from a life raft about 36 nautical miles east of Boston last night.
The crew from the Woods Hole-based Shelagh K scrambled into the raft after their 180,000-pound load of herring shifted in the hold, making the boat unsteady. The master of the vessel radioed the Coast Guard to report that he feared the boat would sink.
The Coast Guard lost radio contact with the boat shortly after the 10 p.m. call was made. A cutter and rescue boat were sent from Provincetown while a Jayhawk helicopter from Air Station Cape Cod sped to the boat's last known position.
The fishing boat capsized and sank, but the crew had made it to safety aboard the life raft. They were plucked from the raft by the helicopter and brought to the air station at the Massachusetts Military Reservation.
The crew was treated for cuts, scrapes and other minor injuries, the Coast Guard said. The names of the four crew members were not available.
The Shelagh K is no stranger to the Coast Guard. Twice this summer the Coast Guard and Navy teamed up to detonate an unexploded torpedo caught in the fishing vessel's nets. The first torpedo was pulled up May 28 while fishing about 90 miles south of Woods Hole and 80 miles southeast of the tip of Long Island. Navigational charts had marked the areas as filled with unexploded torpedoes.Three weeks later, on June 19, the crew hauled another unexploded torpedo out of the water while fishing 85 miles south of Martha's Vineyard.