7 years after it sank, The Mistress is found near the wind farm off Block Island

R.I. fisherman Captain Oscar Diaz and his nephew, John Ansay Jr., died when the boat went down in 2019. “There’s no closure, not yet,” John Ansay Sr. said.

Seven years after two men died when the commercial fishing boat Mistress sank in a January storm off the coast of Block Island, R.I., a mysterious team of researchers using sidescan sonar and divers claim they discovered the wreckage along with human remains this summer. The operation is detailed in an anonymous Sept. 5 report complete with underwater photographs.

The 43-page report was sent to the Coast Guard, National Transportation Safety Board, and representatives for the families.

The anonymous group wrote that the findings from their 35-minute dive are sensitive and could impact future search and recovery operations, navigational safety, and renewable energy issues, and they “have chosen to preserve their anonymity” at this time. They said they have provided their contact information to authorities and are available to cooperate. The project leader gave a brief interview to the Globe, to confirm elements of the dive mission.

The project leader said their interest was to solve a mystery that might “enhance marine safety” in the area.

According to the report, the Mistress lies 92 feet underwater and 50 feet from the base of the easternmost turbine at the wind farm about 3 miles off Block Island. Divers discovered three small bones they believe to be human and took pictures of what they think were more remains near the wheelhouse. The project leader said they left the bones in place. Mistress owner Captain Oscar Diaz and his nephew and deckhand, John Ansay Jr., both from Rhode Island, died in the accident. Oscar Diaz’s son Tim Diaz, the first mate, was rescued and survived. He declined to comment.

 A four-blade bronze boat propeller believed to be from the F/V Mistress.Courtesy of the Sept. 5, 2026, F/V Mistress report

John Ansay Jr.’s father learned of the report after it was sent to his lawyer, Kevin Daley, of Warwick, in early September. He hoped it would bring some closure, but he said the report only raised more questions.

“There’s no closure, not yet,” John Ansay Sr. said. “Until I know whose bones they are, Oscar or my son’s?”

He said he also wonders why it took so long to find the wreck given that it was in an area where regular maintenance was conducted. The report asks many of the same questions and calls for the case to be reopened: “The F/V Mistress appears to have been resting in a very conspicuous location and that should have been detected and reported to the USCG for investigation within a period of months, not for more than 7 years.”

Ansay Sr. wants the authorities to recover the bones and conduct a DNA analysis to identify who they belong to.

Last week, a Coast Guard spokeswoman for the Northeast District in Boston, confirmed receipt of the report but said she could not comment until 24 hours after notifying next of kin. As of Monday, Ansay Sr. said the agency had not contacted him.

The Rhode Island State Police has a cooperation agreement with the Coast Guard to perform dive operations to recover human remains. But no one had informed them about the report or requested their assistance, according to Lieutenant Ryan Mahoney, the commander of the Marine Services Unit.

“We’re open to any request for service,” Mahoney said.

The F/V Mistress, a 52-foot wood-hulled trawler, departed Point Judith’s Port of Galilee on Dec. 30, 2018, on a planned three-day fishing trip for whiting about 60 miles south of Block Island. Oscar Diaz, who had been fishing out of Galilee his entire adult life, had a brief window to beat a forecasted winter storm.

 John Ansay Jr. had just celebrated his 31st birthday the night the F/V Mistress left port.Courtesy of John Ansay Sr.

Ansay Jr. had been fishing with his uncle for about a year and a half. His father credited the job with helping his son find a fulfilling career. “Once he went fishing, he fell in love with it,” his father said. Ansay Jr. celebrated his 31st birthday the night they left port.

The Mistress made it to the fishing grounds and was able to trawl for at least a day before heading back the evening of Dec. 31 as the weather worsened. Heavy rains, 30 mph winds, and 10- to 12-foot seas battered the boat.

Sometime after midnight, Oscar Diaz noticed something wrong and ordered his son to check below decks, according to a statement Tim Diaz gave the Coast Guard.

After inspecting, he reported that the fish hold was flooded and they needed to abandon ship. The three men donned their immersion survival suits, radioed a distress call, then hit their emergency position-indicating radio beacon, or EPIRB. Tim Diaz told officials he climbed on top of the wheelhouse attempting to release the life raft. At one point the boat severely listed starboard and Oscar and Tim Diaz fell into the water. Ansay Jr. was believed to be in the wheelhouse. The boat then capsized and sank. Tim Diaz was able to swim to the life raft, but never saw his father or cousin again.

The Coast Guard immediately launched an Ocean Sentry twin turbo prop search plane and a Jayhawk rescue helicopter out of Air Station Cape Cod, along with two Coast Guard cutters. At least three fishing vessels also joined the search. Low visibility prevented the helicopter from flying too close to the wind farm, so the Coast Guard asked one of the fishing vessels, the FV Timberwolf, to inspect the turbine platforms, according to Timberwolf Captain Jamie Risser. They found no survivors.

Meanwhile, the FV Captain Bligh, captained by Andrew Arnett, followed a line of debris that led to the life raft from the Mistress with Tim Diaz in it and hauled him aboard. He was not physically injured.

The search and rescue effort was called off on Jan. 2 after covering 376 square miles. Coast Guard and state police continued searching unsuccessfully for the wreck during the next few days around the wind farm, Lieutenant Mahoney said.

In the aftermath, John Ansay Sr. and John Ansay Jr.’s mother, Sandy Gallo, sued Hope Fisheries, Diaz’s fishing company in federal court. Ansay said he suspected the boat was in poor condition and wanted answers. “I thought my son died out there because of lack of maintenance,” he said.

Through past inspection reports the lawsuit revealed the 35 year-old boat was unsafe, according to Daley, the family’s attorney, including wood planking that needed to be replaced, below deck compartments called bulkheads that were not watertight, and a bilge pump system that did not drain properly. The insurance company for Hope Fisheries settled in 2023 for an undisclosed sum.

The loss of the Mistress reverberated through Point Judith’s close fishing community, where Oscar Diaz was well known on the docks. “He was a fun person to be around and he was a hard worker,” said Fred Mattera, president of the Commercial Fisheries Research Foundation. Mattera ran fishing boats out of Point Judith for decades and regularly hired Diaz as a crewmember.

The report’s authors described themselves as a “multi-disciplinary team of marine experts.” They wrote that they performed a sidescan sonar on Sept. 10, 2025, “in response to rumored wreckage,” and found debris that could be a wreck. They followed up in July 2026 with more sonar. Divers descended to the site on Aug. 30 and documented their discoveries, which included pieces of equipment — deck hatch, fish hold, and stainless steel conveyor coupled with pictures of those items on the Mistress before she sank — helping identify the vessel.

Revolution Wind, which operates the wind farm, referred questions to the US Coast Guard.

Motivated by the loss of his son, Ansay Sr. said he wants to do more to promote safety at sea, including a proposal to attach GPS trackers to survival suits.

“We can never bring them back, but we can make it better in the future,” he said.