California dive boat captain gets four-year prison sentence over fire incident that killed 34

The captain of a Santa Barbara, California-based dive boat that caught fire and sank near Santa Cruz Island in 2019, resulting in the deaths of 33 passengers and one crewmember, has been sentenced to 48 months in US federal prison, the US Department of Justice said on Thursday, May 2.

Jerry Nehl Boylan, 70, of Santa Barbara, was sentenced by United States District Judge George H. Wu on Thursday. A restitution hearing was scheduled for July 11.

At the conclusion of a 10-day trial, a jury found Boylan guilty in November 2023 of one count of misconduct or neglect of ship officer – an offense commonly called “seaman’s manslaughter.”

Boylan was the captain of Conception, a passenger vessel that docked in Santa Barbara Harbuor.

During a Labor Day weekend dive trip on September 1, 2019, the boat carried 33 passengers and six crewmembers including Boylan.

During the early morning hours (local time) of September 2, 2019, a fire broke out while the boat was anchored in Platt’s Harbor near Santa Cruz Island. The fire, which engulfed the boat and led to its sinking, resulted in the deaths of 34 people who had been sleeping belowdeck.

Five crewmembers, including Boylan, were able to escape and survived.

United States Attorney Martin Estrada blamed the tragedy on Boylan’s “cowardice and repeated failures.”

Boylan, as captain of Conception, committed a series of failures – including abandoning his ship instead of rescuing passengers – that resulted in the disaster. Such conduct constituted misconduct, gross negligence, and inattention to his duties and led to the deaths of 34 victims, prosecutors argued.

As the vessel’s captain, Boylan was responsible for the safety and security of the vessel, its passengers, and its crew.

Federal prosecutors argued he failed in his responsibilities in several ways, including by:

• failing to have a night watch or roving patrol;
• failing to conduct sufficient fire drills and crew training;
• failing to provide firefighting instructions or directions to crewmembers after the fire started;
• failing to use firefighting equipment, including a fire ax and fire extinguisher that were next to him in the wheelhouse, to fight the fire or attempt to rescue trapped passengers;
• failing to perform any lifesaving or firefighting activities whatsoever at the time of the fire, even though he was uninjured;
• failing to use the boat’s public address system to warn passengers and crewmembers about the fire; and
• becoming the first crewmember to abandon ship even though 33 passengers and one crewmember were still alive and trapped below deck in the vessel’s bunkroom and in need of assistance to escape.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation, the US Coast Guard Investigative Service, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives investigated this matter.