The builder, John Yan Nguyen, may have pieced together the Arctic Rose with scant blueprints. The boatyard is now defunct and Coast Guard investigators can't find Nguyen. But the gentleman has disappeared. The Arctic Rose started out as a shrimper called the Sea Power, then was outfitted to gather Atlantic scallops. It was sold, outfitted for trawling in the Pacific, and renamed Tenacity.
Some former crew say the modifications made the narrow boat top-heavy.
Chester Holmes, of Eureka, Calif., was a deckhand aboard the boat when it snagged a net and nearly rolled over off Oregon in early 1993. Arctic Sole Seafoods, which has its offices at Fishermen's Terminal, took ownership of the boat in 1999. The Arctic Rose was drab, rundown and in need of work. A new engine was installed and improvements made. A naval architect inspected it and drew up a list of operating rules.