Second-generation fisherman says capsizing won't keep him from the big lake

“We’ve got more nets in the shed,” said Tim Robinson after the fishing tug he crewed on, the Bessie-E, was smashed against rocks and flipped over by the waves and ice on Lake Superior less than 24 hours before.

Robinson was first off the ship as she rammed hard into the little island, which is really more of a big rock, close to the mouth of Mamainse Harbour. 

“Jake had just got the engine started and we looked out to see the shore coming at us,” he said.

“I didn’t think of anything,” Robinson said. “I just jumped. All I kept thinking was ‘Get off the boat, get off the boat, get off the boat.’”

It’s entirely possible that his quick reaction time saved the lives of all five men aboard the Bessie-E on Tuesday night.

Tuesday night’s events are not going to stop the 27-year-old, second-generation fisherman and father of two from getting back out on the lake, though.

He grew up with Jacob (Jake) Bjornaa and crewed on the Bessie-E when Jake’s dad, Allan Bjornaa, was captain of the Bessie-E. 

Bjornaa Sr. passed away just eight months ago; the Bessie-E was everything he had in the world and he left it to Jacob to carry on the family business, said Robinson.

“It’s all we know,” said Robinson. “We’ve done it all our lives. It’s who we are.”

“We’ll get another boat and we’ll be back out on the lake by April,” he said. 

Also on the Bessie-E that night were Rich Couture, Darryl Mearow and his 17-year-old grandson Brandon Morine.

Couture, a father of three, had only been on the boat a few months when she was lost. 

“We were just training him,” said Robinson.

Mearow is, himself, a lifelong fisherman and h​as​ been​​ a long-time crewman aboard the Bessie-E. 

This was Morine’s third summer aboard the fishing tug.

“We’re not normally fishing at this time of year,” Robinson explained. “Usually by December the boat is at the dock and everything is put away until April.”

But this year the water was calm and clear, for the most part, right up until a few weeks ago.

“Just a few weeks ago I was hauling nets in a T-shirt,” he said. “But then it got windy and cold all of a sudden.”

Robinson said Jake had planned to wait until a good day and just make a quick trip out to go get the nets then put them and the Bessie-E away until the start of the regular season in April. 

They all thought it was a good day on Tuesday.

The wind was blowing off shore, there wasn’t much ice packed in the harbour and it was pretty warm - for winter anyway.

“That was our last trip, all right,” said Robinson.

After retrieving the nets the Bessie-E headed back to Mamainse Harbour and quickly ran into trouble.   

The wind had changed direction and was blowing out of the north, pushing a lot of ice into a hard pack in the harbour.

For about three hours the Bessie-E struggled to get back to her berth but couldn’t make any headway, said Robinson.

There came a time when the ice packed in around the boat so tight that she couldn’t go anywhere and the crew saw the wind and ice was pushing them shoreward. 

“Jake knew he had to get her turned and point her bow seaward,” said Robinson. “Finally he did and that’s when he called Jim on the satellite phone to tell him we might not make it back.”

Jim MacDonald, the harbour authority for Mamainse Harbour, encouraged Jake to keep trying to get to a safe place where they could just sit tight and wait it out.

“He kept telling us to not give up,” said Robinson.

MacDonald believed there was a good chance the men on the Bessie-E would be okay.

"There's been plenty of times I've sat out there overnight," said MacDonald.

But right after Bjornaa hung up the satellite phone Bessie-E’s engine sputtered and died.

There was apparently a vapour lock somewhere in the fuel lines. The lines had to be bled and cleared - at least a half-hour job.

The boat was, again, at the mercy of the ice and wind and not much closer to the harbour.

“We worked on it for about half an hour and finally Jake got it going,” said Robinson.

But by then, it was well past too late for the Bessie-E.

"Just [as the motor started] the stern touched bottom, kicking the boat around and plowing it up further toward shore," MacDonald said.

That’s when Robinson says he took a leap of faith and jumped out one of the side doors onto the little island with the red light on it.

“I just saw the ledge and jumped.”

“The rocks were steep and slippery,” he said. “By the time I climbed up and got to my feet I looked back and saw the Bessie-E surging up behind me.”

“At its height it was maybe 50 feet above me,” he said. “The rest of the guys were on the outside of the boat hanging onto the bridge, being tossed around.”

“I called out to them, telling them to wait until I say it’s safe to jump,” said Robinson. “I could see when they were over the water or over the shore. If they jumped at the wrong time it would’ve been the last thing they did.”

Mearow was the first to jump and he hurt his leg in the jump.

“Not like broken or anything, just like a sprain,” said Robinson.

Next, Morine tossed a rope down to the two men on the little island.

Robinson was afraid that, if they didn’t get the other three men off the boat and up the rocks fast they would be crushed by the boat driving against the rocks.

“It was slippery and cold,” he said. “I was scared.”

Morine was pulled to safety next, followed by Couture.

“Jake was stuck last on the boat and I could see it was getting ready to roll over,” said Robinson. “I told him to hurry.”

Just as the four men pulled Jake up the rocks the Bessie-E smashed against them one more time and rolled off into the water upside down.

“It only took about four or five waves to demolish her,” said Robinson. “Everything was flying everywhere. It felt like hours between when I got off the boat to when we got Jake off. It could have been half an hour, it could have been an hour. It could have even been 10 minutes. I really don’t know.”

By the time the Bessie-E settled into the water with only a few feet of her hull showing, all that the five crew men standing on the rocks had was the clothes on their backs and a flashlight.

It was completely dark by then, the wind was strong enough to really chill them and the shore ice they had to traverse to get from the little island to the shore proper was rough and difficult to walk on.

They circled around the little island to where the ice was thicker then made their way across to the nearest building.

“Jake’s pants and boots were wet,” said Robinson. “He got pretty cold when we walked to the fish-packing plant to warm up.”

MacDonald said all five crew members of the Bessie-E walked off the lake and went home with hardly a scratch on them.

"I call it a miracle that they're all alive,” he told SooToday Wednesday. "Today, I was more shook up than I ever was in 47 years on the lake.”

Robinson agreed with MacDonald.

“I can’t believe I’m alive and talking to you,” he told SooToday. “But as close as I came to dying, I’m going to get back on that lake.”

The Bessie-E was used to fish mainly for whitefish and trout which Bjornaa would sell to local restaurants and markets.

She was one of seven fishing boats that berth in Mamainse Harbour.

Robinson and Bjornaa are hoping to go check on the Bessie-E Thursday to see what’s left of her and if she’s still on the surface of the water. 

The water depth in the area where she capsized drops off fast, said Robinson. She could be on the bottom by now.

Investigators from the Transportation Safety Board are enroute to investigate the incident.