Help with a Pacific mystery...

[four winds]

Would wearing a survival suggest the person was crew of a vessel lost at sea? Perhaps an Alaskan fishing vessel?

Maybe some records from the era would help. Ship's equipment enventory records from ships lost at sea for the survival suit serial number?

[MaxWebXperienZ]

Amateur sleuthing is very interesting activity. I was driving on highway 14 north of Los Angeles once, saw a car being pulled out of the Aquaduct. The guy had gone missing the week before and authorities were baffled. An amateur sleuth looked at his cellphone records, times of departure, etc. and deduced that he had gone asleep driving and went into the water. Sure enough, case solved.

[seasick]

It seems unlikely that anyone would get into a survival suit unless the boat they were on was in imminent danger of going down. It is even more unlikely that they would go into the drink unless their boat sank out from under them.

It occurs to me that the best path to solving this mystery would be to look into the records of vessels that went missing or went down in the North Pacific from 1980 to 1982. Of these distressed vessels which ones had crew that were unaccounted for?

We sailed from Puget Sound to Hawaii in 1982 as the start of a four and a half year circumnavigation. This is the first time any of my extended family have heard of this fellow which is really odd as this would have been big news in 1982 in Hawaii.

[SaltyMonkey]

seasik n boaty r right . long shot but if only one arm, getting intot srvival suit diff w/o help

[seasick]

My wife and I were Alaska Commercial fisherman for the six years prior to our second Pacific voyage in 1982. It seems unlikely to me that anyone would hire a one-armed deck hand or cook. This would point to the cadaver being either a captain or the vessel he came from being something other than a fishing vessel. It seems more likely that the vessel would have been a merchant vessel or perhaps a fish processor of recreational vessel. I don't believe that immersion suits were a USCG requirement for commercial vessels until 1983 but I could be mistaken.

[Cadence]

Originally Posted by Magnum p.e.

This will be the strangest post on this forum.

https://identifyus.org/cases/6909

I need your help. I am seeking to identify a sailor who washed up in Hawaii in November of 1982 in a Bayley 7-01-00 exposure suit. He had been in the water a long time, hence he has been named Barnacle Bill. The suit was made in 1979 and was sold in Tacoma Washington.
The medical examiner thinks he MAY have had his left arm amputated below the elbow sometime antemortem. They believe he was about 5'9" tall and may have had brown hair.
If anyone knows of what company may have the old Bayley sales records, we do have the serial number of his suit. There is no DNA, no prints, and only partial dentals, so that suit is probably the best chance at identifying him.

Anyone know who he might be?

Thanks

Good luck. Have you been able to possibly pursue any military records on amputees? I had a brother-in-law identified by plates used for a broken arm.

[Rustic Charm]

[QUOTE=Magnum p.e.;2081416]

Originally Posted by sailpower

OK, clearly the OP ducked the question.

Also who is the "we" that has the suit information?

Obviously more here then we are being told.[/QUOTE

I belong to a collective of cold case hobbyists. We work on cases that the authorities have not solved. Some of the cases are many decades old and no one is really working on them except us. We do solve some, but remember that these are the tough ones. The suit information can be found at the link I provided in my first post, I think it is the identifyus site. Law enforcement or a ME posts that to solicit help.
The best chance of IDing Barnacle Bill is to have more, and the right, people aware of him and talking about him. I may come up with a printable flyer. With the help of people on this board it could be easily posted in marinas all over the Pacific.

I am counting on the known predilection of you nautical types for gathering, talking about interesting things, and consuming alcohol.

I have given you an interesting thing, you provide the alcohol.

If I knew more, believe me I would tell you. There just is not that much to go on in this case.
Thanks again.

Thanks OP for a very clear and concise explanation of what your doing i hope you manage to get some answers.

And frankly, if i knew anything id much rather pass the information on to yourself than the official numbers Monkey emphasises as your more likely to take the information seriously than a burocrat being interested in a 30 year old case.

[Magnum p.e.]

Originally Posted by boatman61

I think the suit will only prove of help if it was part off a bulk purchase by a trawler fleet where records may be kept.. guy goes over tending gear/line.. arm gets caught and he's pulled over and loses the arm in the process.. body never found because of the weather..
I bought my suit in Denmark.. however I could go over in the Southern Ocean.. as an individual purchase I think tracing me via the number on the suit would be impossible.
Try looking at the commercial fishermen lost at sea lists in the NE Pacific fleets..

Thanks for your input Boatman. Note that he was wearing blue jean shorts under the exposure suit. Does not sound like commercial fisherman garb but What do I know? I can tell a Ketch from a yawl and know sheet from halyard but I am no blue water sailor.
Does anyone know if his exposure suit was favored more by fishermen or recreational sailors? Or is there any difference?
Once again, he may have lost the arm some time before the accident, so we MAY be seeking an amputee who was lost. Or he may have lost it after death or during whatever happened. If they mistook an exposure suit for a diving suit maybe they got that wrong also.
The currents and the purchase in Tacoma lead me to the Pacific Coast. I have so far found three missing men from the right area and timeframe, all from California I think. The time frame is narrow. With time I think we will ID him.

[Magnum p.e.]

[QUOTE=Rustic Charm;2081515]

Originally Posted by Magnum p.e.

Thanks OP for a very clear and concise explanation of what your doing i hope you manage to get some answers.

And frankly, if i knew anything id much rather pass the information on to yourself than the official numbers Monkey emphasises as your more likely to take the information seriously than a burocrat being interested in a 30 year old case.

Thanks so much for understanding. I worked four years on another one nearly 60 years old, it was like pulling teeth to get a call returned. Thought we solved it, everything fit, but when the DNA was done it was not him.
You would be surprised how often a missing person report was never filed or was ignored/mishandled. That is why I came here, best shot at an ID. And I know that sailors will always try to help another sailor, even one thirty years gone.

[CaptTom]

Thanks for posting here, I think you're on the right track to include more people who are "out there". Forgive the skepticism, we do see our share of trolls.

I think I do recall the case, or one very much like it. At the time I would have been pretty busy with my own life, but I think I assumed it would eventually be solved.

Random thoughts: They can get DNA now out of mastodons and bog mummies. But of course, floating in the ocean is different. And what about clothing? Even a scrap might give some clues as to the country or culture they came from. I guess I'm not convinced the suit serial number is the best clue. It would be pure, dumb luck if the manufacturer and retailer happened to save those records all these years. Most companies wouldn't bother. Of course, if the physical evidence is long gone, and all you've got are the records of the investigation, I guess that's where you have to begin.

[Rustic Charm]

[QUOTE=Magnum p.e.;2081538]

Originally Posted by Rustic Charm

Thanks so much for understanding. I worked four years on another one nearly 60 years old, it was like pulling teeth to get a call returned. Thought we solved it, everything fit, but when the DNA was done it was not him.
You would be surprised how often a missing person report was never filed or was ignored/mishandled. That is why I came here, best shot at an ID. And I know that sailors will always try to help another sailor, even one thirty years gone.

Dude, this is CF, we love a good mystery. CF members did a hell of a lot of resewrch into the MH370 plane going missing. On entirely the wrong track but, hey, lots and lots of effort

[SaltyMonkey]

Or the guy could have been a smuggler and off the radar.

The body could already have been burned which is the norm for unclaimed remains after 2 years, aye?

[deblen]

A quick Google :
Safety Recommendation M-89-002
Apparent problems with BaleySuit

[seasick]

This mystery man could just have easily been a victim of an airplane crash as a vessel sinking. General aviation aircraft being ferried over from the mainland often carry immersion suits and life rafts.

1981-1982 were bad years for hurricanes in and near the Hawaiian Islands.

[deblen]

I started a new thread on cold water immersion & the development of full body exposure (gumby ) suits FYI

Cold Water-History of Exposure Suits - Cruisers & Sailing Forums