Sean Cone was 24 years old when he was reported missing from Portland, Maine, in connection with the commercial fishing vessel Lady Luck. NamUs identifies the case as MP56350 and lists his date of last contact as January 30, 2007; the case information describes him as a White/Caucasian male with sandy hair and blue eyes, about 5 feet 9 inches to 6 feet 1 inch tall and weighing roughly 160 to 190 pounds.
He was aboard Lady Luck with Daniel Miller, whose own disappearance is tied to the same incident, and the United States Coast Guard is listed as the investigating agency.
The Coast Guard’s investigation gives the clearest picture of the vessel’s final known movements. Lady Luck had been fishing in the Gulf of Maine on the morning of January 30, and by the following day the crew had taken on additional ice at Vessel Services in Portland. The vessel was estimated to be carrying about 1,000 gallons of fuel and 8 tons of ice, and witnesses described the vessel as appearing normal before departure. On the evening of January 31, Lady Luck left Portland with plans to return toward Newburyport, Massachusetts, while groundfishing south of Platt’s Bank. Shortly after leaving, another vessel saw Lady Luck outbound near Spring Point Light and attempted to hail her because her running lights did not appear to be energized, but no response was received.
Later that night, the vessel’s last Vessel Monitoring System transmission placed Lady Luck in the Gulf of Maine. In the early morning hours that followed, the Coast Guard received a signal from the vessel’s emergency beacon, triggering an urgent broadcast and a search-and-rescue response. Searchers found an oil slick and a small debris field, but no survivors, no bodies, no survival suits, and no life raft were found during the search effort. The emergency beacon was later recovered and appeared to have activated automatically during the sinking rather than manually by the crew, a detail that suggested the disaster unfolded too suddenly for Sean and Daniel to send a distress call. The search was suspended on February 2, 2007.
In March 2007, the Coast Guard used a remotely operated vehicle to inspect Lady Luck on the ocean floor. The vessel was located in approximately 530 feet of water, and the visible portions of the hull and superstructure did not show catastrophic damage. Investigators observed that the vessel’s windows were intact, the fishing gear was stowed, and the boat did not appear to have been actively fishing when it sank. They also found the life raft deployed and inflated on the bottom, still attached to its cradle by the sea painter, meaning the raft had not separated in a way that would have made it usable at the surface. A later safety-focused account preserved by CDC/NIOSH emphasized that the case became a painful lesson in lifesaving-equipment performance and the importance of proper weak-link installation.
The Coast Guard evaluated several possible explanations for what happened, including collision, flooding, and capsizing. A ship strike was considered unlikely because vessel-traffic analysis did not place a large commercial vessel close enough to Lady Luck during the suspected casualty window, and the ROV survey did not show damage consistent with a major collision. Flooding was considered possible, including the possibility of uncontrolled flooding related to piping or other vulnerabilities, but the investigation also noted factors that made gradual engine-room flooding less likely. Capsizing remained a central possibility because Lady Luck may have gone down rapidly, no stability test had ever been conducted on the 52-foot steel-hulled dragger, and the vessel was carrying a large amount of ice; investigators could not determine whether boards used to keep ice from shifting were in place that night.
Sean Cone and Daniel Miller have been remembered by family, friends, and the fishing community as two young fishermen lost in a sudden and devastating marine tragedy. Later accounts described Sean as a North Andover native and captain of Lady Luck, and Daniel as his crewman from North Hampton, New Hampshire; both were remembered years afterward in memorial gatherings. Although Sean’s NamUs record remains a missing-person entry, the Coast Guard investigation and later maritime-safety reporting describe the event as the sinking of Lady Luck with the loss of both crew members. In overview, Sean Cone’s case began as a missing-person report from Portland, Maine, connected to a working fishing trip, became a major Coast Guard search after an emergency beacon alerted rescuers, and ultimately centered on a vessel found deep in the Gulf of Maine with no recovered crew, leaving his loved ones with the sorrow of a life lost at sea and investigators with a tragic case whose exact mechanical sequence could not be fully proven.Last Seen: Jan 30, 2007
