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Sinking of MV Conception
The sinking of MV Conception occurred on September 2, 2019 after the 75-foot (23 m) dive boat caught fire and eventually sank off the coast of Santa Cruz Island, California, United States, killing 34 of 39 people aboard. The boat was anchored overnight at Platts Harbor, a small undeveloped bay on the island's north shore, when a fire broke out on the main deck shortly after 3 a.m. The 33 passengers and 1 crew member who were sleeping below the main deck were trapped by the fire and killed. The remaining 5 crew had sleeping berths on the top deck and were able to escape. The five survivors placed an initial mayday call to the Coast Guard and attempted to alert the people below deck but all routes to the main sleeping area were blocked by fire and they were forced to jump overboard. The surviving crew retrieved the Conception's skiff and motored to a nearby boat where a second radio dispatch was made. The rescue and recovery operations were coordinated by the United States Coast Guard.
The sinking is the worst maritime disaster in California since the sinking of the Brother Jonathan in 1865 and the deadliest in the United States overall since the USS Iowa turret explosion in 1989.
Motor vessel (initialized "MV") Conception was a 75-foot (23 m) liveaboard boat built in Long Beach, California, and launched in 1981. She was one of three dive boats owned by Truth Aquatics, which operated charter excursions from Santa Barbara Harbor for groups of divers interested in exploring the Channel Islands, located close to the coast of Southern California across the Santa Barbara Channel from Santa Barbara and Ventura County. Conception was under charter to Worldwide Diving Adventures (WDA) for a three-day scuba diving excursion over the Labor Day holiday weekend, which was one of WDA's most popular diving tour packages. The boat had been refurbished at a cost of more than $1 million following an incident in 2005 when it had been stolen and run aground.
Federal and international regulations require boats over a certain size to be made of fire-resistant materials and to include fire sprinklers and smoke detectors wired into the ship's electronics or linked to the bridge. Given the vessel's age and size, Conception was not covered by those regulations. She measured less than 100 GT and had fewer than 49 berths. She was made of wood covered with fiberglass, as permitted by regulations last updated in 1978. At the time of the fire, Conception was believed to be in compliance with those regulations, and the most recent Coast Guard inspections in February 2019 and August 2018 did not result in any noteworthy violations. According to the vessel's Certificate of Inspection, she had a maximum capacity of 103: four crew and 99 passengers; one crewmember was required to be designated as a roving patrol at all times when the passenger bunks were occupied.
The boat was laid out with three decks. The upper deck contained the wheelhouse, crew quarters, and a sun deck lounge area. The main deck, just below the upper deck, included a large cabin, which had a galley (in the forward portion of the cabin) where the crew could prepare meals and a salon (in the aft portion) with seating for meals. The salon was accessed from the stern through a hallway lined with restrooms. On the lower deck, up to 46 individuals could sleep in 13 double bunks (12 of which were stacked in twos) and 20 single bunks (18 stacked in threes), with one labeled as reserved for crew. The lower deck also contained the shower area, anchor locker, engine room, and lazarette (a machinery space). The rest of the crew berths were located two decks above, in the aft portion of the wheelhouse on the upper deck.
According to the deck plans, the main access to the guest accommodations on the lower deck was the forward stairway connected to the galley and main deck cabin. The designer of the vessel stated that there were two exits from the lower deck bunk room: a forward staircase at the bow end of the vessel that led up to the galley area, and an aft escape hatch located above one of the bunks, which led to the salon. After exiting the aft escape hatch, a person would still be within the main deck cabin, approximately 3 to 4 feet (0.9 to 1.2 m) forward of the exit to the main deck. Some former dive passengers could only recall the forward stairway exit and could not recall if they had been briefed on the presence of the aft emergency escape hatch. Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown stated both exits appeared to have been blocked by fire during the disaster.
Conception departed Santa Barbara Harbor at 4:04 a.m. on August 31 and arrived at a dive location near Albert Anchorage, on the south side of Santa Cruz Island, by 8:30 a.m. that morning. The six-person crew consisted of the captain, a second captain (the Truth Aquatics title for mate), first and second deckhands, and first and second galleyhands. Upon arrival and while eating breakfast, the first deckhand conducted a safety briefing, which was interrupted when a passenger fainted; after the passenger was revived, the captain continued the briefing. Conception then sailed to the eastern side of the island and anchored in Smuggler's Cove overnight. As part of their regular nighttime routine, the crew had an unwritten policy to shut down the circuit breakers to de-energize the galley burners and griddle.
The excursion held a night dive at Quail Rock, on the northern coast near the western end of the island, from 8:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. on September 1. The returning divers stowed flashlights, cameras, and photo strobes on the two aft tables in the salon; some of these were plugged in to charge alongside cellular phones and tablets. The first galleyhand recalled that when he plugged in his phone to charge that night, he "saw sparks" at the receptacle.
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Sinking of MV Conception
The sinking of MV Conception occurred on September 2, 2019 after the 75-foot (23 m) dive boat caught fire and eventually sank off the coast of Santa Cruz Island, California, United States, killing 34 of 39 people aboard. The boat was anchored overnight at Platts Harbor, a small undeveloped bay on the island's north shore, when a fire broke out on the main deck shortly after 3 a.m. The 33 passengers and 1 crew member who were sleeping below the main deck were trapped by the fire and killed. The remaining 5 crew had sleeping berths on the top deck and were able to escape. The five survivors placed an initial mayday call to the Coast Guard and attempted to alert the people below deck but all routes to the main sleeping area were blocked by fire and they were forced to jump overboard. The surviving crew retrieved the Conception's skiff and motored to a nearby boat where a second radio dispatch was made. The rescue and recovery operations were coordinated by the United States Coast Guard.
The sinking is the worst maritime disaster in California since the sinking of the Brother Jonathan in 1865 and the deadliest in the United States overall since the USS Iowa turret explosion in 1989.
Motor vessel (initialized "MV") Conception was a 75-foot (23 m) liveaboard boat built in Long Beach, California, and launched in 1981. She was one of three dive boats owned by Truth Aquatics, which operated charter excursions from Santa Barbara Harbor for groups of divers interested in exploring the Channel Islands, located close to the coast of Southern California across the Santa Barbara Channel from Santa Barbara and Ventura County. Conception was under charter to Worldwide Diving Adventures (WDA) for a three-day scuba diving excursion over the Labor Day holiday weekend, which was one of WDA's most popular diving tour packages. The boat had been refurbished at a cost of more than $1 million following an incident in 2005 when it had been stolen and run aground.
Federal and international regulations require boats over a certain size to be made of fire-resistant materials and to include fire sprinklers and smoke detectors wired into the ship's electronics or linked to the bridge. Given the vessel's age and size, Conception was not covered by those regulations. She measured less than 100 GT and had fewer than 49 berths. She was made of wood covered with fiberglass, as permitted by regulations last updated in 1978. At the time of the fire, Conception was believed to be in compliance with those regulations, and the most recent Coast Guard inspections in February 2019 and August 2018 did not result in any noteworthy violations. According to the vessel's Certificate of Inspection, she had a maximum capacity of 103: four crew and 99 passengers; one crewmember was required to be designated as a roving patrol at all times when the passenger bunks were occupied.
The boat was laid out with three decks. The upper deck contained the wheelhouse, crew quarters, and a sun deck lounge area. The main deck, just below the upper deck, included a large cabin, which had a galley (in the forward portion of the cabin) where the crew could prepare meals and a salon (in the aft portion) with seating for meals. The salon was accessed from the stern through a hallway lined with restrooms. On the lower deck, up to 46 individuals could sleep in 13 double bunks (12 of which were stacked in twos) and 20 single bunks (18 stacked in threes), with one labeled as reserved for crew. The lower deck also contained the shower area, anchor locker, engine room, and lazarette (a machinery space). The rest of the crew berths were located two decks above, in the aft portion of the wheelhouse on the upper deck.
According to the deck plans, the main access to the guest accommodations on the lower deck was the forward stairway connected to the galley and main deck cabin. The designer of the vessel stated that there were two exits from the lower deck bunk room: a forward staircase at the bow end of the vessel that led up to the galley area, and an aft escape hatch located above one of the bunks, which led to the salon. After exiting the aft escape hatch, a person would still be within the main deck cabin, approximately 3 to 4 feet (0.9 to 1.2 m) forward of the exit to the main deck. Some former dive passengers could only recall the forward stairway exit and could not recall if they had been briefed on the presence of the aft emergency escape hatch. Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown stated both exits appeared to have been blocked by fire during the disaster.
Conception departed Santa Barbara Harbor at 4:04 a.m. on August 31 and arrived at a dive location near Albert Anchorage, on the south side of Santa Cruz Island, by 8:30 a.m. that morning. The six-person crew consisted of the captain, a second captain (the Truth Aquatics title for mate), first and second deckhands, and first and second galleyhands. Upon arrival and while eating breakfast, the first deckhand conducted a safety briefing, which was interrupted when a passenger fainted; after the passenger was revived, the captain continued the briefing. Conception then sailed to the eastern side of the island and anchored in Smuggler's Cove overnight. As part of their regular nighttime routine, the crew had an unwritten policy to shut down the circuit breakers to de-energize the galley burners and griddle.
The excursion held a night dive at Quail Rock, on the northern coast near the western end of the island, from 8:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. on September 1. The returning divers stowed flashlights, cameras, and photo strobes on the two aft tables in the salon; some of these were plugged in to charge alongside cellular phones and tablets. The first galleyhand recalled that when he plugged in his phone to charge that night, he "saw sparks" at the receptacle.