From the time the incident started until she started listing over, by the time she was completely upside down, was approximately minutes. We got across the deck to the second deck and tried to release the life raft, and as we were doing so, she was gradually tipping over, and we were stepping our way back. There was no mayday put off, not through the marine radio. There was a satellite phone. If the time had been taken to make those calls in the wheelhouse, they could have been trapped inside. The EPIRB was our only chance, and I think it took an hour and 15 minutes from the time the EPIRB initially went off to the time the LEO satellite picked up its position. The technology was there.
I think it was in 2004 that it was mandatory for the black boxes to be installed on all fishing vessels in a certain class. It was used by DFO to pinpoint or keep track of where we were, but it was also expressed that even though the fisherman himself had to cover the cost of this black box, it would be used to help save our lives. But in this case, it wasn't.
All they had to do in a matter of seconds was go in and punch in the name Melina and Keith II , and it would have shown its last known position, which would have been only a couple or three or four miles from where we actually got rescued. If the coordinator who was on duty that night had used that technology and had alerted the search and rescue in Gander before four o'clock, they could have been on their way within their 30-minute guideline, maybe in 20 minutes. I had no doubt that they would have flown over and seen our men, as I said earlier, waving at them, and we would have all been rescued before the vessel sank at 5:30.