Divers recovered the bodies of three seal hunters Saturday from a disabled fishing vessel that capsized about 70 kilometres north of Cape Breton while being towed by a coast guard icebreaker.

The Acadien II was being towed by a Canadian Coast Guard ship when it capsized about 70 kilometres north of Cape Breton.
(CBC)

Lt. Lora Collier of the Canadian navy said only two members of the crew of the Acadien II survived. Divers were still searching for a fourth missing sealer who was aboard the overturned fishing boat.

The 12-metre vessel, with a crew of six from the Îles de la Madeleine in Quebec, made a mayday call after having steering problems and was being towed to Sydney, N.S., by the Sir William Alexander early Saturday when it overturned.

Pierre-Bruno Bourque, one of the survivors, told CBC Newsworld's French-language sister station RDI that it was dark, but no one on the icebreaker appeared to be watching his vessel as it was being towed.

"The icebreaker was pulling and putting pressure on the boat against the ice," Bourque said in a telephone interview. "So we were tilting … and the boat capsized."

He said no one on the icebreaker was monitoring his boat.

"I don't know if it was too cold, but they all went inside," he said. "When we hit the piece of ice, the icebreaker didn't notice."

Another vessel that was nearby plucked Bourque and another crew member out of the frigid sea, he said.

"The boat that was behind me was the one that alerted the icebreaker to stop," he said.

Air search conducted

The coast guard icebreaker Sir William Alexander sits off the coast of Cape Breton, N.S., on Saturday.
(Andrew Vaughan/Canadian Press)

The dead, who were reportedly asleep when the boat flipped, included Bourque's father, Bruno Bourque, the captain of the vessel.

Joel Arseneau, mayor of Îles de la Madeleine, identified the other men who died as Gilles Leblanc and Marc-Andre Deraspe. The fourth sealer, who is still missing, is Carl Aucoin, he said..

A Hercules search and rescue aircraft and a Cormorant helicopter from the Canadian air force's 14 Wing Greenwood in Greenwood, N.S., were fanning out along a grid pattern in search of the remaining crewman.

Coast guard officials confirmed that the icebreaker attached a tow rope to the fishing boat around midnight and it capsized 90 minutes later.

They would not comment on the speed of the icebreaker, but said it's not unusual to tow a boat with the crew still aboard.

"Our concern right now is to continue the search and rescue mission for the missing person," said Mike Voigt, the coast guard's superintendent of search and rescue.

He added it was up to the crew of the disabled vessel to determine whether they should stay aboard.

Another vessel abandoned; crew rescued

Meanwhile, seven sealers were forced to abandon their boat off Cape Breton Saturday afternoon as the vessel sank in the same waters.

The sailors abandoned the 17-metre Annie Marie as it was taking on water about 20 kilometres northeast off the northern tip of Cape Breton.

They waited on pack ice for a helicopter, which picked them up late Saturday afternoon and transported them back to Îles de la Madeleine.

The navy's Collier said there were no injuries among the sealers.

With files from the Canadian Press