Captain Sebastian Noto, a close friend and fishing partner of Gus Sanfilippo, the veteran skipper of the ill-fated 72-foot vessel Lily Jean, has revealed the haunting last conversation he had with his buddy—just hours before the boat vanished off the coast of Gloucester, Massachusetts.
‘I was about 30 miles east of him,’ Noto told reporters, his voice heavy with grief. ‘We usually work together all the time. We are like glue, man. We give a lot of information back-and-forth.’
That fateful call came around 3 a.m. on January 30, 2026. Sanfilippo, battling brutal sub-zero temperatures that turned air vents into blocks of ice, sounded exhausted but calm.
‘He said, “I quit. It’s too cold,”‘ Noto recounted. ‘He was calm. He just couldn’t do the cold because the air holes were freezing.’
Tragically, those were among the last words anyone heard from the captain. By dawn, the Lily Jean had sent out an eerie automated distress signal via its emergency position-indicating radio beacon (EPIRB). No Mayday call. No frantic radio pleas. Just silence—and then horror.
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The U.S. Coast Guard scrambled into action, launching helicopters, cutters, and small boats into the frigid, unforgiving waters 25 miles off Cape Ann. What they found was nothing short of nightmare fuel: a debris field scattered across the waves, one unresponsive body recovered from the icy sea, and an unoccupied life raft bobbing aimlessly—its canopy flapping in the wind like a ghost flag.
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The raft, linked directly to the Lily Jean, was empty. No survivors clinging to it. No signs of struggle. Just eerie silence on the ocean that has claimed so many Gloucester souls over the centuries.
Noto, still reeling, speculated on what might have gone catastrophically wrong. ‘Just a guess, I could be wrong,’ he said, ‘but even if the bilge is taking water, you got plenty of time to call Mayday. You got plenty of time to get into the survival suit, life raft. The boat takes time to sink.’
Yet something went terribly, inexplicably wrong. No distress call was ever voiced. The experienced crew—many from multi-generational fishing families—never had the chance to don survival gear or abandon ship properly.
The Lily Jean’s seven souls included Captain Accursio “Gus” Sanfilippo, a fifth-generation fisherman and star of a 2012 History Channel episode of “Nor’Easter Men,” where he and his crew braved brutal storms for haddock, lobster, and flounder. Also lost were Paul Beal Sr. and his son Paul Beal Jr.—a father-and-son duo working side by side—along with John Paul Rousanidis, Freeman Short, Sean Therrien, and 22-year-old NOAA fisheries observer Jada Samitt, a recent university graduate whose family described her as ‘vibrant, compassionate… brave and determined.’
After an exhaustive 24-hour search covering over 1,047 square miles, the Coast Guard made the agonizing decision to suspend operations on January 31.
‘The decision to suspend the search was incredibly difficult,’ said Capt. Jamie Frederick, commander of Coast Guard Sector Boston. ‘Our thoughts and prayers are with all the family members and friends of the lost crew of the Lily Jean, and with the entire Gloucester community during this heartbreaking time.’
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Gloucester, America’s oldest seaport and the real-life inspiration for The Perfect Storm, is no stranger to loss. The iconic Fisherman’s Memorial—etched with the names of thousands lost since 1623—stands as a somber reminder of the sea’s relentless toll.
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Flowers piled at the statue’s base as grieving families, friends, and fellow fishermen gathered in shock. Vigils were held at local churches, with tears flowing freely for the men who risked everything daily to bring seafood to American tables.
‘Gloucester has a long fishing history and that fishing history includes tragic loss,’ said State Sen. Bruce Tarr, who grew up with Sanfilippo. ‘This was a good vessel, a good skipper, who was skilled and wise and spirited. It makes it really hard to fathom when you lose a boat just miles from shore under those circumstances.’
The Coast Guard has launched a formal investigation, with assistance from the National Transportation Safety Board, to uncover why the Lily Jean sank so suddenly and silently in waters that should have allowed time for escape.
For now, the questions linger like fog over the Atlantic: What froze more than just the vents that night? Why no final cry for help? And how does a tight-knit crew, bound by years of brotherhood, vanish so completely?
The sea keeps its secrets, but in Gloucester, the pain is raw and real. Seven lives lost. One haunting phone call. And an ocean that claimed them all—leaving only echoes, an empty raft, and a community forever changed.
