Sunken New Bedford fishing vessel found off Martha’s Vineyard
![Leonardo at the dock. [Photo courtesy of boat owner Luis Martins]](/gcdn/authoring/2019/12/10/NPRJ/ghows-PJ-995977d6-f815-0b68-e053-0100007f44b8-e96bb56b.jpeg?width=660&height=440&fit=crop&format=pjpg&auto=webp)
NEW BEDFORD — The fishing vessel Leonardo that capsized and sank Nov. 24 with four fishermen aboard has been found, according to the Massachusetts Environmental Police.
“We located and identified the sunken fishing vessel on Sunday morning,” Maj. Patrick Moran said Monday.
The Leonardo is a 57-foot scalloper, based out of New Bedford. The vessel sank in choppy seas some 24 miles southwest off Martha’s Vineyard.
Moran said the boat was found 140 feet down near where it was reported missing and was “sitting perfectly upright.”
An ROV robot was sent down to scan the Leonardo, but because the windows on the boat’s pilot house were tinted, the robot “couldn’t see inside,” Moran said. He noted the windows were not broken.
The position of the vessel has been marked and it is in the fishing grounds where other commercial fishermen work.
Of the four fishermen aboard the Leonardo, only one, Ernesto Garcia, was rescued when he was found in a lifeboat. The other three fishermen who are considered lost at sea are Gerald Bretal, Mark Cormier and Xavier Vega.
The state Medical Examiner’s Office is working to identify the body of a man washed up Saturday on Menemsha Beach on the Vineyard.
A woman walking her dog called Chilmark police at about 11 a.m. Saturday to report the body.
Justin Longval, senior chief at U.S. Coast Guard Station Menemsha, said Saturday that based on the sand and debris blown around it, the body had probably been there for awhile.
Coast Guard officials delivered the unidentified male body from Menemsha to Coast Guard Station Woods Hole, where state police met the medical examiner, Longval said.
There was immediate speculation that the body may be of one of the three missing fishermen.
Longval said Saturday it was too soon to make the connection between the washed-up body and the Leonardo.
“There is no way yet to make the tie to the Leonardo until there is a positive ID,” he said.
Material from Cape Cod Times reporter Christine Legere was used in this report.