The 34 victims of the worst maritime tragedy in recent U.S. history, a fire aboard a scuba diving boat in 2019, are the subjects of a reparations request by prosecutors.
On July 11th, a judge will decide the amount at a hearing in Los Angeles federal court. Nearly five years have passed since the tragic event off the coast of central California in 2019. Since then, there have been reforms to marine rules, reforms in Congress, and many civil actions that are still continuing.
Jerry Boylan, the Conception’s captain, went through a 10-day trial in downtown Los Angeles’s federal courtroom before being found guilty of a single charge of misconduct or negligence of a ship officer last year. The action that created the charge, sometimes referred to as seaman’s manslaughter, was intended to hold members of the steamboat crew accountable for maritime tragedies that occurred before the Civil War.
He received a four-year jail term plus three years of probation. His release from jail is conditional on his appearance before the Bureau of Prisons on August 8. His appeal is still active.
On the last day of a three-day voyage, the Conception caught fire just before sunrise near Santa Cruz Island, which is located 25 miles from Santa Barbara. The ship sank less than 100 feet from the coast after the fire.
Stuck in a room below deck, 33 guests and 1 staff member died. The first to leap off the ship was Boylan. Four of the crew also jumped and survived.
Prosecutors said Boylan was responsible for the fire because he never gave his workers the requisite training and failed to post the mandatory roving night watch. The origin of the fire is still unknown.
However, the federal public defenders representing Boylan attempted to shift responsibility onto boat owner Glen Fritzler. Fritzler and his wife controlled Truth Aquatics Inc., which ran the Conception and two other scuba diving boats.
They blamed Fritzler for the crew’s lack of firefighting and safety training and for instituting carefree safety measures.
Truth Aquatics sued after the fire, claiming it could restrict its obligation to the worth of the boat’s remains under a pre-Civil War clause of maritime law, which requires the Fritzlers to prove they were not responsible. Victims’ relatives have sued the Coast Guard, claiming that the agency was too lenient in executing the roving watch obligation.
