On a winter day in January 1999, a 21-year-old college student named Douglas M. Oland vanished off the coast of New Jersey. Douglas, a student at Keene State College in New Hampshire, was home in Bayville for his semester break. Described as a tall, broad-shouldered young man with a friendly nature, he was hoping to earn some extra money for school. An opportunity arose to work as a fill-in crew member aboard the *Adriatic*, an 85-foot steel surf clam dredger.
Though he was a certified scuba diver and surfer who felt a 'magnetic feeling' from the ocean, he had only been on a clam boat once before. On January 18, 1999, he joined three other men—Captain George Evans, Michael Hager, and Frank Jannicelli—and the *Adriatic* headed out from Point Pleasant for the Atlantic Ocean.
The work on the *Adriatic* was known to be backbreaking, as it lacked the modern machinery of other boats, requiring the crew to shovel the clams by hand into cages. The crew was aware that a storm was predicted for later that night. Tragically, the vessel sailed into perilous conditions. The boat, battered by rough seas, began to take on water and sank rapidly. It was estimated that a loaded clam boat in bad seas could sink in as little as 15 seconds. An incomplete Mayday was sent, and the boat's emergency beacon failed to properly transmit its location, meaning no rescuers were immediately dispatched to their position about 10 miles from the nearest Coast Guard station.
In the chaotic moments as the *Adriatic* went down, the boat's life raft deployed but reportedly became entangled in a railing, rendering it useless. There was no time for the crew to access the survival suits stored below deck. It is uncertain if Douglas and Captain Evans were inside the wheelhouse or if they made it out of the vessel as it capsized and sank into the 45-degree water. In the days and weeks that followed, search and recovery efforts were undertaken. Divers eventually located the sunken wreck of the *Adriatic*. Nine days after the sinking, they recovered the bodies of crewmen Michael Hager and Frank Jannicelli from inside the boat. Despite extensive searches of the vessel, the bodies of Douglas Oland and George Evans were never found. The case remains a heartbreaking maritime tragedy, a reminder of the dangers faced at sea. The young college student, home on break, was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time, becoming one of two men on the *Adriatic* to be forever lost to the sea that day.Last Seen: Jan 18, 1999
