Nephew: Shrimp boat overturned when nets snagged

PANAMA CITY — An overturned 28-foot shrimp boat sat in St. Andrew Bay on Friday afternoon, not far from Sun Harbor Marina. Two recovered ice chests floated, tethered, at its side.

Usually, Timothy Miller takes out his own shrimp boat, but he couldn’t afford the gas for it Thursday night. Instead, he and his friend, Gary Chitwood, took out a smaller boat, which belongs to Miller’s father.

A tugboat picked up 44-year-old Miller early Friday morning, clinging to an ice chest near his father’s capsized vessel.

Rescue crews found the body of Chitwood, 40, washed ashore on Bird Island nearly 12 hours after Miller said the boat rolled.

Miller and Chitwood have fished together for 15 or 20 years, Miller’s nephew said.

Japheth “Junior” Clayton said his uncle and Chitwood often would leave just before sunset and spend the night out on a shrimp boat.

Clayton visited Miller at Gulf Coast Medical Center on Friday morning, where he was being treated for hypothermia, muscle deterioration and kidney failure. Hospital spokesman Rod Whiting said the Southport man was in stable condition as of Friday afternoon.

Miller told his nephew that he and Chitwood were dragging their shrimp nets about 3 a.m. when the nets caught on a crab box on the bottom of the bay. He turned circles to try to free the nets, but the boat “just turned on its side,” Clayton said. Both men were thrown from the vessel.

It happened so quickly, Clayton said, neither man had time to put on a life vest.

Miller told his nephew that he and Chitwood both swam for one of two ice chests, which also had been thrown. When Miller realized he and his friend were headed for the same chest, he said he split from Chitwood and went for the other chest so they both would have their own means of staying afloat.

“He said he turned around when he got to it, and he said he didn’t see” Chitwood, Clayton said. “He started yelling for him and looking for him, but he couldn’t find him.”

Miller floated in the 50-odd-degree water for about four hours before a tugboat spotted him about dawn.

EMS transported Miller to the hospital at 8:10 a.m. after picking him up from a Coast Guard vessel at the Panama City Marina. Miller was bundled in several blankets.

Authorities searched for Chitwood by helicopter, boat and with dive teams from the Bird Island area to the St. Andrew Pass. Just before 3 p.m., they found the body of the Lynn Haven man, who Clayton said has a wife and four school-age children.

Randall Lanier, who slept on his docked boat in Sun Harbor Marina on Thursday night, said the early-morning tides had been particularly rough.

A couple of Panama City Fire Department personnel confirmed the currents around the capsized boat were bad, and said the bottom of the 18-foot-deep bay contained a lot of loose debris.