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 stated that Boylan neglected his responsibilities as the captain by being the first crew member to abandon the ship without alerting the occupants about the fire through the public address system. Furthermore, federal prosecutors alleged that Boylan did not make any effort to extinguish the fire with the available onboard equipment, such as an extinguisher, and failed to assign a night watch, allowing the fire to spread unnoticed throughout the vessel.
In his defense, Boylan's attorneys claimed that the fire rapidly approached him, but he remained on board until he issued a distress call to the Coast Guard and only leaped off when he believed he had no chance of survival.
Surviving crew members informed the National Transportation Safety Board that the boat's smoke alarms did not activate. A preliminary report by the NTSB revealed that all six crew members were asleep when the fire erupted, a violation of Coast Guard regulations mandating the presence of a night watchman on duty.
While the federal safety investigators never determined the cause of the fire, authorities held the owners of the vessel, Truth Aquatics Inc., responsible for inadequate supervision, although no charges were filed against them. Initially, there were suspicions that the fire might have been triggered by overheated lithium-ion batteries.
Rescue boats took approximately an hour to reach the scene of the tragedy. By that time, the Conception had been completely engulfed in flames, resulting in the loss of all 34 individuals on board.
"The primary focus in this case is the defendant's obligations as captain," as per the U.S. Attorney's Office.
Charged in December 2020 with 34 counts of seaman's manslaughter, Boylan faced a refiled indictment on a single count encompassing all the deaths, following objections from the defense.
The prosecution's sentencing papers state, "Defendant has never apologized, much less taken any responsibility for the atrocity he caused."
