El Toro

There was a little rain that morning, but no wind and no sign of serious trouble on the bay despite the radio weather advisory. Clayton S. Lore, captain of the El Toro II, switched off the weather channel and prepared the boat to set out for a day's fishing from the dock on St. Jerome Creek in St. Mary's County."

HAVRE DE GRACE -- Chief Warrant Officer Lloyd Wiggins, U.S. Coast Guard, examined the Sea Horse with the cool professional thoroughness of a homicide detective at a crime scene.He looked at her papers. He examined her equipment. He poked her in intimate places. He asked awkward questions. He got into his coveralls and crawled down into her bilge. And as he did all this he made careful notes, which really gave her operator chills. Was it going to be as bad as all that?The 43-foot Sea Horse, a wooden 24-year-old Eastern Shore workboat, was no more used to this than her operator.

Three days before the El Toro II sank in the Chesapeake Bay killing three people, an insurance inspector reported that the boat "may be the worst Coast Guard-inspected boat I have seen," and declared it unfit to operate or carry people.The 14-page report notes rotted wood inside the boat, fire hazards from both poor wiring and an engine battery left unsecured in an oil-soaked bilge, "terrible stowage" of life jackets, dry-rotted life jackets, and deteriorated hoses and structural bolts.The report dated Dec. 2 notes the absence of an automatic bilge pump and an alarm to alert the captain of too much water in the bilge.

RIDGE -- The eyes of Joseph C. Lore welled up with tears yesterday as he talked about the crewman who died when his boat, the El Toro II, went down in a storm in 1993. But they flashed with anger when he talked about his indictment and trial on manslaughter charges.The criminal charges placed him and his family in an unwelcome spotlight. He was ostracized by the neighbors in this rural community and a bitter twist was added to an accident that continues to haunt him, he said."I don't know if you'd call it nightmares, but it comes back to me every day of my life.

A U.S. Coast Guard inspector ignored a recommendation to pull samples of the nails holding together the El Toro II, saying that when he saw the boat in March and April 1993, he found no problems to warrant a closer look."

RIDGE -- The eyes of Joseph C. Lore welled up with tears yesterday as he talked about the crewman who died when his boat, the El Toro II, went down in a storm in 1993. But they flashed with anger when he talked about his indictment and trial on manslaughter charges.The criminal charges placed him and his family in an unwelcome spotlight. He was ostracized by the neighbors in this rural community and a bitter twist was added to an accident that continues to haunt him, he said."I don't know if you'd call it nightmares, but it comes back to me every day of my life.

LEONARDTOWN -- In an abrupt ending to the criminal case against the operators of the ill-fated El Toro II charter boat, a St. Mary's judge yesterday dismissed manslaughter charges against the boat's skipper and his son.Judge John Hanson Briscoe said the state's effort to prove its case in the 1993 sinking, in which three people died in a Chesapeake Bay storm, was too weak to even require a defense.Judge Briscoe gave a directed verdict to Joseph C. Lore II, 54, and Clayton S. Lore, 32, ruling that the prosecutor did not prove the men knew of defects that caused the fishing boat to sink.

State and federal investigators yesterday got their first look at the hull of a 60-foot fishing boat that sank Sunday in the Chesapeake Bay off Point Lookout, causing the deaths of two of the 23 people on board.The El Toro II had been towed ashore overnight to a marina at Ridge, which is just north of Point Lookout in southern St. Mary's County.Investigators seeking the cause of the accident focused on wooden planks along the hull.Several of the 10-inch-wide planks were loose, the investigators said.

The Coast Guard has ordered its officers nationwide to perform more rigorous inspections of wooden boats in hopes of catching the sort of flaws that may have contributed to the sinking of the El Toro II.The two-page national "safety alert" revises inspection rules to require, rather than recommend, that inspectors pay particular attention to the nails and bolts in boats more than 15 years old.Inspectors "must" remove any nails, screws or bolts they suspect...

Sunday morning, the El Toro II set out from Ridge, in St. Mary's County, with 23 people aboard to fish for rockfish in Virginia's waters of the Chesapeake Bay. Sunday afternoon, the 60-foot headboat foundered in heavy seas and, despite an admirable and timely rescue operation, two died.The U.S. Coast Guard and the Natural Resources Police are probing the cause of the sinking of the El Toro II. At this point, the cause has been reported as a sprung plank that flooded the engine room, killing the power plant, disabling the boat's pumps and eventually sinking it.What will be harder to determine is why Capt.

LEONARDTOWN -- In an abrupt ending to the criminal case against the operators of the ill-fated El Toro II charter boat, a St. Mary's judge yesterday dismissed manslaughter charges against the boat's skipper and his son.Judge John Hanson Briscoe said the state's effort to prove its case in the 1993 sinking, in which three people died in a Chesapeake Bay storm, was too weak to even require a defense.Judge Briscoe gave a directed verdict to Joseph C. Lore II, 54, and Clayton S. Lore, 32, ruling that the prosecutor did not prove the men knew of defects that caused the fishing boat to sink.

The families of three men who died when a fishing boat sank in a December 1993 storm filed suit yesterday in federal court, each seeking $20 million from the boat's owners, the U.S. Coast Guard and an insurance company.Fourteen others, who say they were injured when the 58-foot El Toro II went down off Point Lookout in St. Mary's County, are seeking $300,000 each.The El Toro II, which carried 20 passengers and three crew members, ran into trouble during a storm that packed 35-mph winds and churned up 8-foot seas as it was returning from a chartered fishing trip.

When their 19-year-old son, Eddie, died in the sinking of the El Toro II fishing boat last December, Ed and Betty Philips, along with others in St. Mary's County, pressed for a grand jury investigation.Now, a year after the boat was swamped by a storm in the Chesapeake Bay, the county grand jury has indicted the boat's owner, Joseph C. Lore II, 54, and his son, Clayton S. Lore, 31, the boat's captain, on 21 counts of manslaughter and reckless endangerment."Justice hasn't been done yet, but this is the first step," said Ed Philips of Piney Point, whose oldest son was a crewman on the 58-foot boat that sank off Point Lookout Dec. 5, 1993, when it was hit with 35-mph winds and seas churning as high as 8 feet.

After investigating the deaths of three people in the sinking of a fishing boat in the Chesapeake Bay last December, a federal agency is proposing tighter safety rules that are both reasonable and overdue.The National Transportation Safety Board wants the Coast Guard to require life boats on small passenger vessels to keep victims out of cold waters and protect them from overexposure. That was a cause of the three deaths in the Dec. 5 sinking of the El Toro II out of St. Mary's County.Automatic bilge alarms to indicate flooding, lacking on the El Toro II, should also be required on wooden vessels, the board recommended.

The Coast Guard has ordered its officers nationwide to perform more rigorous inspections of wooden boats in hopes of catching the sort of flaws that may have contributed to the sinking of the El Toro II.The two-page national "safety alert" revises inspection rules to require, rather than recommend, that inspectors pay particular attention to the nails and bolts in boats more than 15 years old.Inspectors "must" remove any nails, screws or bolts they suspect...

PATUXENT RIVER NAVAL AIR STATION -- The blame for the sinking of the El Toro II must be shared by the Coast Guard, the boat's insurance company and the owner, lawyers for the victims' families said yesterday."

After investigating the deaths of three people in the sinking of a fishing boat in the Chesapeake Bay last December, a federal agency is proposing tighter safety rules that are both reasonable and overdue.The National Transportation Safety Board wants the Coast Guard to require life boats on small passenger vessels to keep victims out of cold waters and protect them from overexposure. That was a cause of the three deaths in the Dec. 5 sinking of the El Toro II out of St. Mary's County.Automatic bilge alarms to indicate flooding, lacking on the El Toro II, should also be required on wooden vessels, the board recommended.

When their 19-year-old son, Eddie, died in the sinking of the El Toro II fishing boat last December, Ed and Betty Philips, along with others in St. Mary's County, pressed for a grand jury investigation.Now, a year after the boat was swamped by a storm in the Chesapeake Bay, the county grand jury has indicted the boat's owner, Joseph C. Lore II, 54, and his son, Clayton S. Lore, 31, the boat's captain, on 21 counts of manslaughter and reckless endangerment."Justice hasn't been done yet, but this is the first step," said Ed Philips of Piney Point, whose oldest son was a crewman on the 58-foot boat that sank off Point Lookout Dec. 5, 1993, when it was hit with 35-mph winds and seas churning as high as 8 feet.

The insurance inspector who saw the El Toro II five days before it sank in the Chesapeake Bay Dec. 5 noted plenty of safety hazards, but told investigators yesterday he found no evidence the hull was unseaworthy.The wooden boat was on a rockfishing expedition to Virginia waters when its hull ruptured during a storm and the boat sank, killing three.Kim I. MacCartney, a marine surveyor for the Insurance Company of North America, inspected the boat Nov. 29 and wrote that the El Toro II "may be the worst Coast Guard-inspected boat I have seen."

A U.S. Coast Guard inspector ignored a recommendation to pull samples of the nails holding together the El Toro II, saying that when he saw the boat in March and April 1993, he found no problems to warrant a closer look."