Olen Seth Nash was a 20-year-old White male from Southeast Alaska who was last seen on November 12, 1999, after the fishing vessel Becca Dawn sank in the Gulf of Alaska. Although his missing-person record is associated with Juneau, the disaster occurred far offshore in the Fairweather fishing grounds west of Yakutat. Olen, who was also known as Olin, was working aboard the steel-hulled longline halibut vessel with three other crew members when they encountered a violent winter storm.
The remote waters were dark and exceptionally dangerous, with heavy snow, powerful winds, freezing spray, and confused seas reportedly reaching heights of approximately 35 to 45 feet.
As the Becca Dawn foundered, its four crew members were forced into the frigid water. Olen was wearing an orange survival suit with reflective tape on the arms over blue polypropylene clothing. During the emergency, he was reportedly tethered to the sinking vessel by a rope and was last observed attempting to swim toward a life raft that had broken loose. The circumstances placed him in an almost impossible position: the vessel was going down, the raft was moving away in the storm, and the violent seas made swimming or maintaining visual contact extraordinarily difficult. His companions were eventually found clinging together in the water, struggling to remain afloat amid the waves and freezing conditions, but Olen was no longer with them.
A United States Coast Guard HH-60J helicopter crew followed the vessel’s emergency beacon into the storm. The aircraft traveled through snow squalls, approximately 45-knot winds and visibility reported at only one-quarter of a mile. At the scene, gusts reached about 65 knots, severe turbulence repeatedly pushed the helicopter off position, and freezing spray filled the air. Because the aircraft could not maintain a stable hover above the survivors, the flight crew had to make repeated attempts to lower a rescue basket while keeping the helicopter clear of the towering waves. After an exhausting operation, the Coast Guard successfully lifted all three surviving crew members from the water and transported them to safety in Yakutat. The helicopter crew then made an urgent but unsuccessful attempt to locate Olen.
The search for Olen continued after the rescue, with Coast Guard personnel examining an immense area of ocean under severe and rapidly changing conditions. Despite the extensive effort, searchers found no trace of him. His disappearance left his family facing a particularly painful uncertainty: three people had survived an extraordinarily violent maritime disaster, but Olen had vanished within the same dark and freezing waters. No recovery has been publicly reported, and the Alaska State Troopers continue to identify him in official records as a missing person connected to the sinking of the Becca Dawn.
At the time he disappeared, Olen was approximately six feet tall and weighed about 175 pounds. He had brown hair and blue eyes. These identifying details remain part of the official record, although the known circumstances strongly indicate that his disappearance was the result of the maritime disaster rather than a voluntary departure. Olen Nash’s case is the story of a young fisherman caught in a sudden and overwhelming catastrophe at sea, the courageous rescue of three of his companions, and an exhaustive search that could not bring him home. More than two decades later, his fate remains inseparable from the final moments of the Becca Dawn and from the enduring loss experienced by those who knew and loved him.Last Seen: Nov 12, 1999
