The captain of the dive boat Conception, which caught fire and killed all 33 of the boat’s passengers and one crew member in 2019, faces sentencing in Los Angeles federal court Thursday, beginning at 10:30 a.m. Captain Jerry Boylan, now 70, faces 10 years in federal prison.
Boylan, was found guilty in 2023 of one count of misconduct or neglect of ship officer, colloquially known as seaman’s manslaughter for one of the deadliest maritime disasters in recent U.S. history.
The fatal fire happened in the early morning hours of Sept. 2, 2019, while the dive boat was anchored off the shoreline of Santa Cruz Island, which is about 22 miles southwest of Santa Barbara.
A total of 39 people — 33 passengers and six crewmembers — were aboard the ship when it caught on fire. Those who were asleep below deck, were still alive and in need of assistance to escape, prosecutors said. Boylan and four crew members escaped.
The United States Attorney’s Office said Boylan failed to perform his duties as the captain by being the first crewmember to abandon the ship without using the public address system to warn the occupants about the fire. Additionally, federal prosecutors claimed that Boylan did not attempt to fight the fire with the onboard equipment — which included an extinguisher — and did not post a night watch, which allowed the blaze to spread through the vessel undetected.
Defense attorneys argued that the flames quickly closed in on Boylan, but he stayed aboard until he made the mayday call to the Coast Guard and only jumped when he was sure he would not live otherwise.
Surviving crew members told the National Transportation Safety Board that the boat’s smoke alarms never went off. A preliminary NTSB report found that all six crew members were asleep when the fire broke out, a violation of Coast Guard rules requiring there to be a night watchman on duty.
Although federal safety investigators never found the cause of the fire, officials blamed the owners of the vessel, Truth Aquatics Inc., for a lack of oversight, though they were not charged with a crime. It was originally thought the fire may have been sparked by overheated lithium ion batteries.
It took rescue boats about an hour to reach the disaster. By that time, the Conception was totally engulfed in flames and all 34 victims had died.
“The key issue here is the defendant’s duties as captain,” according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Boylan was originally charged in December 2020 with 34 counts of seaman’s manslaughter, but after the defense objected, prosecutors refiled an indictment on the single count covering all the deaths.
“Defendant has never apologized, much less taken any responsibility for the atrocity he caused,” according to the prosecution’s sentencing papers.