Two days later, a U.S. Coast Guard cutter and five aircraft were also on the case. But there was no clue about the missing boat until November 5, when the Coast Guard positively identified the Andrea Gail's radio beacon and propane tank, which had washed up on Sable Island.

"The recovered debris is loose gear and could have washed overboard during heavy weather," said Petty Officer Elizabeth Brannan. "No debris has been located that indicates the Andrea Gail has been sunk."

The search had covered more than 65,000 square miles at that point. In heavy seas it's hard for a pilot to be sure he is seeing everything-one Coast Guard pilot reported spotting a 500-foot ship that he had completely missed on a previous flight-so no one was leaping to any conclusions. Two days and 35,000 square miles later, though, it was hard not to assume the worst: Now the Andrea Gail's emergency position-indicating radio beacon had been found. It, too, had washed up on the beaches of Sable Island.

An EPIRB is a device about the size of a bowling pin that automatically emits a radio signal if it floats free of its shipboard holster. The signal travels via satellite to onshore listening posts, where Coast Guard operators decode the name of the boat and her location to within two miles. EPIRBs have been required equipment for fishing vessels on the high seas since 1990. The only catch is that the device must be turned on, something captains do automatically when they leave port. ("It's not the sort of thing you forget," says one captain.) Though Bob Brown insists that the Andrea Gail's EPIRB had been turned on when it left port, it was found on Sable Island disarmed.

The Coast Guard called off the search on November 8, 11 days after the Andrea Gail had presumably gone down. Search planes had covered 116,000 square miles of ocean. "After taking into account the water temperature and other factors, we felt the probability of survival was minimal," Coast Guard Lieutenant Brian Krenzien told reporters at the time. The water temperature was 46 degrees. When a man falls overboard on the Grand Banks that late in the year, there usually isn't even time to turn the boat around.

"I FINALLY GAVE UP HOPE AFTER THE COAST Guard called the search off," says Ethel Shatford, Bobby Shatford's mother, at the Crow's Nest. "It was very hard, though. You always read stories about people being found floating around in boats. The memorial was on November 16. There were more than a thousand people. This bar and the bar next door were closed, and we had enough food for everyone for three days. Recently we had a service for a New Bedford boat that went down last winter. None of the crew was from here, but they were fishermen."

The Crow's Nest is a low, dark room with wood-veneer paneling and a horseshoe bar where regulars pour their own drinks. On the wall below the television is a photo of Bobby Shatford and another of the Andrea Gail, as well as a plaque for the six men who died. Upstairs there are cheap guest rooms where deckhands often stay.

Ethel Shatford is a strong, gray-faced Gloucester native in her late fifties. Three of her own sons have fished, and over the years she has served as den mother to scores of young fishermen on the Gloucester waterfront. Four of the six men who died on the Andrea Gail spent their last night on shore in the rooms of the Crow's Nest.

"My youngest graduated high school last June and went fishing right off the b-a-t," she says. "That was what he always wanted to do, fish with his brothers. Bobby's older brother, Rick, used to fish the Andrea Gail years ago."

She draws a draft beer for a customer and continues. "The Andrea Gail crew left from this bar. They were all standing over there by the pool table saying good-bye. About the only thing different that time was that Billy Tyne let them take our color TV on the boat. He said, ‘Ethel, they can take the TV, but if they watch it instead of doing their work, the TV's going overboard.' I said, ‘That's fine, Billy, that's fine.'

That was the last time Shatford ever saw her son. Recently a young guy drifted into town who looked so much like Bobby that people were stopping and staring on the street. He walked into the Crow's Nest, and another bartender felt it necessary to explain to him why everyone was looking at him. "He went over to the picture of Bobby and says, `If I sent that picture to my mother, she'd think it was me.'

Linda Greenlaw still comes into the bar from time to time, between trips, swearing that some day she's going to "meet the right guy and retire to a small island in Maine." Bob Brown settled out of court with several of the dead crewmembers' families after two years of legal wrangles. Adam Randall, the man who had stepped off the Andrea Gail at the last minute, went on to crew with Albert Johnston on the Mary T. When he found out that the Andrea Gail had sunk in the storm, all he could say was, "I was supposed to have been on that boat. That was supposed to have been me."

During the spring of 1993 the Mary T was hauled out for repairs, and Randall picked up work on a tuna longliner, the Terri Lei, out of Georgetown, South Carolina. On the evening of April 6, 1993, the crew of the Terri Lei set lines. In the early morning, there were reports of gusty winds and extremely choppy seas in the area. At 8:45 A.M. the Coast Guard in Charleston, South Carolina, picked up an EPIRB signal and sent out two aircraft and a cutter to investigate. By then the weather was fair and the seas were moderate. One hundred and thirty-five miles off the coast, they found the EPIRB, some fishing gear, and a self-inflating life raft. The raft had the name Terri Lei stenciled on it. There was no one on board.