Nearly five years after 34 people died in a fire below the deck of the submarine Conception, the victims’ families have yet to receive any compensation and the ship’s captain remains free despite pleading guilty to the deadliest maritime disaster in modern California history. He was jailed for four years.
U.S. District Court Judge George H. Wu on Thursday delayed a decision on whether to pay Capt. Jerry Boylan’s debt to the families of those killed on the 2019 Labor Day holiday on Santa Cruz Island.
Instead, Wu said he would make a final decision by July 29, when he will also decide whether Boylan, 70, should remain free pending an appeal of his conviction.
Wu gave both sides until July 18 to submit a list of undisputed funds as well as disputed funds.
Boylan’s lawyers have asked that he remain free pending an appeal of his conviction for gross negligence in the disaster. They say Boylan has shown he is not a flight risk and there are serious questions about whether he actually caused the deaths of 34 people.
Prosecutors had demanded he be jailed, noting that the case had been delayed “once” and that he had previously been ordered to surrender on August 8, 2024. They say there is “no legal basis for further delay.”
Boylan’s trial last year involved a statute known in the steamship era as “maritime manslaughter.”
Prosecutors argued that despite his 34 years as a naval captain, Boylan failed to appoint a 24-hour federal watchman at Concepcia, who conducted diving expeditions on weekends. He also failed to conduct adequate fire safety drills, causing his crew to panic when the blaze broke out before dawn on Sept. 2, 2019.
As the flames spread, blocking exits for people crowded into the double room below, a member of Boylan’s crew twice drove directly over a 50-foot fire hose. Boylan made the call at 3:14 a.m. before abandoning ship, which prosecutors described as abandoning ship. At Boylan’s sentencing in May, Wu denied the allegation.
Among the 33 passengers and one crew member who died below deck (some while trying to escape) were an environmental scientist conducting research in Antarctica; a worldly couple; a data scientist from Singapore; and the family of three sisters, their father and his wife.
Families of boat fire victims are suing Truth Aquatics and the U.S. Coast Guard for inadequate enforcement.
In sentencing Boylan, Wu said he found the captain “extremely remorseful” and that he “had no intention of doing anything wrong.” He also took into account Boylan’s age and health, as well as his likelihood of reoffending.
Boylan’s attorneys said Glen Fritzler, owner of Truth Aquatics Inc., which operated the Conception and two other dive boats, was responsible for the death. They argued that Boylan’s failure to keep the 24-hour clock was simply Truth Aquatics’ habit and that he didn’t know he was endangering passengers. Prosecutors called it a “blame your boss” defense. Fritzler has denied any wrongdoing.
Following an investigation by The Times and the National Transportation Safety Board, the Coast Guard adopted several safety reforms.
