Earl Blount

of Nantucket, Massachusetts
Born in Nantucket, Massachusetts
Position: Cook
Age: 42

Mr. Blount had served with the 645th Tank Destroyer Battalion attached to the 45th Armored Division in Africa during World War II. He had been a patrolman on the Nantucket police force. He attended Nantucket schools and had been a fisherman for ten years. He was divorced and had two children, Barbara, 18, and Earl Jr., 16.

The scallop dragger William Landry was smashed to pieces by pounding seas near the Pollock Rip lightship in Nantucket Sound. Captain Arne Hansen and his crew had been struggling in high seas for several hours, with the pumps out of operation. They remained in contact with the Coast Guard. The ship's running lights had become visible to the lightship crew, but it suddenly vanished and radio calls went unanswered. The wreckage was later washed up on Wauwinget Beach near Great Point, but the bodies of the crew members were never found.