
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, April 5, 1990                   TAG: 9004041091
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: BOSTON                                LENGTH: Short

FAKE SOS CUT SAILORS' CHANCES/ REAL MISSING BOAT CAUGHT IN HOAX

The call, on a marine hailing frequency, was urgent and chilling: A ship somewhere on the freezing waters off Massachusetts was transmitting a last-ditch plea for help.

"This is the fishing vessel Sol E Mar," a male voice shouted in frenzy. "We're sinkin'. We need help now!"

The plea rose into a scream. The transmission was abruptly cut. Then, there was only crackling static.

Coast Guard radio monitors on Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard tried desperately to get the caller back to locate the ship and send help.

But just over a minute after the first call, another distress signal came in.

"SOS, I'm sinking," a male voice said. And then he laughed.

The Coast Guard officers didn't dispatch rescue planes or boats. The calls, they thought, were just part of the rising number of hoaxes.

Last Friday, five days later, they discovered they were wrong. The Sol E Mar was reported missing and the Coast Guard began a search for the father and son who manned the 50-foot fishing vessel.

By then, it was too late.

The Sol E Mar and the two men were presumed lost at sea somewhere south of Martha's Vineyard. The search was called off Sunday night.

The family grieved, fishermen along the New England coast mourned the loss of more of their own, and the Coast Guard was left wondering how to deal with hoaxers who think they are being clever by faking a call for help.

"Things might have been different," said Lt. Paul Wolf, the Coast Guard spokesman in Boston. "I can't say the fake call killed them. But it certainly lessened their chances."

by CNB