The Tragic Sinking of Chief William Saulis – All 6 Crew Lost.

Added: 2026-05-23

[00:00:01]Okay, guys. Welcome back. Today, we're covering a very tragic marine accident.

[00:00:07]From the Transportation Safety Board of Canada's investigation report.

[00:00:12]On December the 15th, 2020, the scallop fishing vessel, Chief William Saulis, was returning to port near Digby, Nova Scotia, when she suddenly capsized and sank.

[00:00:24]All six crew members on board were lost.

[00:00:27]One body was later recovered.

[00:00:29]While the five other crew members remain missing.

[00:00:33]According to the TSB report, the vessel had been fishing and had a very large catch of scallops on board.

[00:00:41]The fish hold was already full, so the crew loaded a significant amount of unshucked scallops onto the working deck.

[00:00:49]Approximately 2,700 kg.

[00:00:53]Piled up to 5 ft high in places.

[00:00:56]In addition, there were about 1,600 kg of shucked scallops already in the fish hold.

[00:01:04]This heavy load on deck, combined with other factors, severely reduced the vessel's stability.

[00:01:11]The freeing ports, which allow water to drain off the deck, were partially blocked by the piled scallops.

[00:01:18]As the vessel headed home in rough conditions, with winds increasing and waves hitting on the beam, water began accumulating on the deck.

[00:01:29]The combination of extra top weight, blocked freeing ports, and water build-up caused the vessel to develop a dangerous list.

[00:01:39]She eventually capsized and sank quickly.

[00:01:43]The crew managed to activate the EPIRB, but they had almost no time to react or abandon the ship properly.

[00:01:50]Search and rescue efforts were launched immediately after the EPIRB signal, involving aircraft, Coast Guard vessels, and nearby fishing boats.

[00:02:01]Unfortunately, no crew members were rescued alive.

[00:02:05]Only one body was recovered later that day.

[00:02:08]The vessel itself was located in 66 m of water in January of 2021, but it has never been salvaged.

[00:02:17]The TSB investigation highlighted several critical safety issues.

[00:02:22]Overloading the deck with catch is a common practice in the scallop fishery, but it significantly compromises stability, especially when combined with rough seas and blocked freeing ports.

[00:02:37]The report also noted that the vessel had not undergone a formal stability assessment despite having several known risk factors.

[00:02:46]This tragic loss of all six crew members is a sobering reminder of how quickly things can go wrong in the commercial fishing industry, which remains one of the most dangerous occupations in Canada.

[00:03:00]The case was added to the TSB's watch list to push for better safety improvements across the industry.

[00:03:08]The Chief William Saulis sinking shows the deadly consequences of stability problems and the need for better loading management, training, and possibly stricter regulations around the deck loading practices.

[00:03:26]I remember when this happened.

[00:03:29]Just a few days before Christmas.

[00:03:31]Always seems like a boat goes down a week or so before Christmas somewhere in the world.

[00:03:38]Always seems like fishermen get lost days before Christmas.

[00:03:43]And in 2020, it was this boat.

[00:03:48]And unfortunately, all hands were lost when this vessel went down.

[00:03:53]I do have issues here.

[00:03:56]I was very disappointed with the Canadian authorities for not even attempting to raise this vessel.

[00:04:05]The missing fishermen were probably still in their bunk.

[00:04:11]They could have been brought home, or at least that's the way I saw it when this happened.

[00:04:18]In this report, it says that they activated their EPIRB.

[00:04:22]I would suspect that EPIRB activated itself.

[00:04:26]That's what they're designed to do.

[00:04:30]If these fishermen were able to do that, then more than one would have been found, or at least that's what I suspect.

[00:04:41]How they can come up with this report and be so sure this is what happened when there was no survivors. They did not raise the boat.

[00:04:50]They did not inspect the boat. Maybe they sent down an ROV and had a look.

[00:04:55]Some of this information is very common knowledge, especially the weather and what she was carrying. This was a company boat, so I'm sure the company owner knew exactly what they had on board at that time.

[00:05:08]Why wouldn't they?

[00:05:11]They were almost at home.

[00:05:15]Really, really close to making it home, which makes this even worse in my opinion.

[00:05:23]But why they didn't even attempt to refloat this boat seems very, very wrong in my opinion.

[00:05:33]Especially at the same time I was watching a boat in Alaska in double the depth or really close to it being brought to the surface.

[00:05:46]It can be done.

[00:05:48]You just have to try. You have to put the resources behind it.

[00:05:52]These fishermen, in my opinion, should have been brought home to their families.

[00:05:59]But these reports, in my opinion, are very, very important.

[00:06:04]I'm just taking this one with a grain of salt because there seems to be a lot of assumptions into what went wrong here.

[00:06:12]How do they know the water wasn't getting out through the scuppers? How do they know there was water on the deck?

[00:06:20]How do they know that's what went wrong?

[00:06:23]Could have been something totally different that sank this vessel.

[00:06:28]But at the end of the day, six fishermen did not get to go home to their families just a few days before Christmas. And that's the sad part here.

[00:06:39]Hopefully, lessons have been learned.

[00:06:43]But I'd be very surprised if the right ones have been learned. Why wasn't this vessel ever issued a stability report?

[00:06:52]Why didn't the owners of this vessel get that done?

[00:06:56]Very, very top-heavy vessel.

[00:06:58]Very, very top-heavy equipment for scallop fishing.

[00:07:05]Why wasn't stability ever considered?

[00:07:09]So many of these sinkings all over the world, I've covered so many of them over the years now.

[00:07:17]It's caused by stability.

[00:07:20]The boat rolled over because of stability or lack of.

[00:07:26]It's a very important thing.

[00:07:29]Very, very important. In some areas, some places in the world, Alaska comes to mind right now, where they take the stability very serious now. But that's because of years of loss.

[00:07:43]Other parts of the world need to wake up and do the same thing.

[00:07:50]We don't know what happened on this night.

[00:07:54]We can speculate all we want, but tragically nobody got to go home to their families and only one body was ever recovered.

[00:08:06]All right, guys. There it is. As always, thanks for watching.

[00:08:10]If you're new here and you like these kind of videos, don't forget to subscribe before you leave. And I'll see you on the next one.