by Jolene Toves

Guam - It was another successful mission for the U.S. Coast Guard doing what they do best - assisting distressed mariners. A Taiwanese fishing boat, the Yow Hsu Man, was only days into its voyage when tragedy struck.

Coast Guard BMI Joshua Grable told KUAM News, "Reports came in Saturday that the family had lost communications with the vessel. With HSC-25 we're able to launch a helicopter on Monday and discovered that the master was unconscious; the master was then medivac'ed to Naval Hospital," he said.

Unfortunately, the master passed away. Now captain-less and with no means of continuing its voyage, the Coast Guard Cutter Washington met the vessel 80 nautical miles west of Rota Thursday afternoon to escort it to Guam waters where it rendezvoused with another Coast Guard boat to transfer a new master to lead the vessel and her crew. "The new skipper's job is to go and make sure everything is okay. That's the big thing that they were verifying today of all the things that were in place that he could safely navigate and continue operating the vessel and continue on with their fishing. The crew was not experienced with the equipment on board and they were having difficulty safely navigating the boat back, Grable continued.

Today's transfer required the assistance of Guam Customs and Quarantine. Officer Peter Alvarez was tasked with conducting his inspections, saying, "Since the boat came within our breakwaters of the island we escorted the new captain out to the boat and did like a little inspection on the boat to make sure they are in compliance with the laws that we have here."

With a new captain now on board the, Yow Hsu Man continued on with its voyage.