Fishing boat "wreckage found"

Top left: Colin Dolby, right: The Louisa fishing boat, and below: the RNLI

Wreckage thought to belong to a fishing boat that went missing in stormy seas off the Essex coast may have been found according to coastguards. Fred Caygill, a spokesman for the RNLI, told a local newspaper that "fresh wreckage" had been located off the Shoebury coast near Southend on Sea. However, the body of the fisherman has yet to be found. Colin Dolby a 47 year old from Old Leigh had called home to say he was returning to port after weather worsen on Monday 10th November. Despite a huge air and sea search involving an RAF helicopter, a hovercraft and RNLI vessels, neither his boat, the Louisa, nor Mr Dolby were found.

Colin Dolby who called himself “Salty the Fisherman” on his MySpace page, used to run angling trips on his boat via the website Star Fishing. The family had been involved in the fishing industry for around 300 years according to Colin’s father, Kenneth who is now 80 and introduced his son to fishing at the age of 4. Colin is quoted as saying "A bad day of fishing is better than a good day of work!" However, Monday proved more than tragic for the fisherman who leaves behind a wife and four children.

The Essex Police Marine Unit is continuing to search for the boat and its skipper and is hoping for information from the public. The boat was last seen trawling for seaweed near the west Shoebury buoy [51° 30’32” N, 0° 45’55”E] [Echo].