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Report: Inexperience Led To Boating Tragedy That Killed 3 Football Players

Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission

Workers salvage Marquis Cooper's boat about 35 miles west of Clearwater on March 2.

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By STEPHEN THOMPSON and JEFF PATTERSON

The Tampa Tribune and News Channel 8

Published: March 27, 2009

Updated: 03/27/2009 04:41 pm

Careless and inexperienced piloting, along with improper anchoring, caused the boating mishap that took the lives of two professional football players, and one former USF football player, according to a Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Report released this morning.

Marquis Cooper, a linebacker with the Oakland Raiders, owned and was responsible for piloting the vessel before it capsized. He and two other boaters – William Bleakley, a former USF football player, and Corey Smith, a free agent who last played for the Detroit Lions – went missing after Cooper's 21-foot Everglades open motor boat capsized on Feb. 28 about 50 miles offshore. Another former USF football player, Nick Schuyler, was the sole survivor.

According to the report, the boaters were unable to free the anchor, which was caught on something 138 feet underwater in the Gulf of Mexico. Cooper lost his anchor one week earlier for the same reason – an inability to free it from the Gulf bottom, the report states. And Fish and Wildlife investigators speculated that perhaps he didn't want to lose another one.

Bleakley suggested they tie the anchor to the transom, at a back corner of the boat, to try and free it, the report states. Afterward, all four were at the helm as Cooper gunned the 200 horsepower engine to full capacity, a move that caused the boat to lurch to the left and capsize.

Investigator James Manson concluded that this move is what caused the tragedy. The boaters should not have tied the anchor to a transom eye-bracket at the back of the boat. And they should not have used the boat's 200 horsepower engine to try and free the anchor. When they did, the boaters did not leave enough slack in the rope, to compensate for the rough sea conditions that evening, and they essentially pulled the vessel into the Gulf of Mexico, causing everyone to go overboard.

All but Smith had been drinking, and Cooper had never taken a boater safety course, the report says. Anyone who takes a boater safety course is told never to anchor a vessel at the rear of a boat but rather at the bow, Manson said at a news conference in Tampa this afternoon.

Had Cooper lived, he would have been charged criminally because of how he reacted to the circumstances, Manson said.

If an anchor gets stuck, one tactic is to circle the boat to free it as it is tied to the bow, Manson said. Another tactic is to simply cut the line and replace the anchor later. "They would have been able to head right back in," Manson said.

It was also ill-advised to take a boat only 21-feet long 50 miles out in rough seas, Manson said. In his interview with Schuyler, Schuyler said it was turbulent as they headed out from the Seminole boat ramp in Clearwater, and Schuyler got sick on the way. The men were dressed for the weather, in sweatsuits and jackets, and one or two were wearing knit pullover scully hats.

After the boat capsized, at about 5:30 p.m., Bleakley then retrieved life vests from under the boat, plus a large cooler to be used for flotation. Bleakley used the cooler while the other three used the vests.

Manson said at the press conference Bleakley found some flares but they were soaked and useless. There was no VHF radio on board, Manson also said. There were cell phones that had been placed in plastic bags but efforts to retrieve them were unsuccessful, the report says.

The four struggled to stay on top of the boat's hull throughout the night, the report states. The next morning, at 5:30, it appeared Cooper was succumbing to hypothermia, and he became unresponsive. Schuyler said he and Bleakley tried to revive him but couldn't. Bleakley took Cooper's life vest.

An hour later, Smith appeared to succumb to hypothermia, the report states. Smith took his own life vest off and drifted away, the report states.

Bleakley managed to hang on for roughly another 24 hours, Schuyler told Manson in an interview in the intensive care unit at Tampa General Hospital. But then Bleakley showed the same symptoms the other two had and removed his life jacket.

Schuyler said he held onto Bleakley as Bleakley died. Then Bleakley drifted away from the boat. Within hours, the U.S. Coast Guard found Schuyler sitting on the hull holding the propeller, and he was rescued, 42 hours after the boat capsized.

The U.S. Coast Guard continued searching for the other three until the following evening, even though the 19-hour time period for surviving hypothermia had long expired.

Reporter Stephen Thompson can be reached at (727) 451-2336.

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