James Donald Crockett, known as Donnie, was 74 when he left Crisfield, Maryland, on March 10, 2005, aboard his 38-foot fishing vessel Eldora C to return home to Tangier Island. That day brought a severe storm: snow, winds gusting to 58 miles per hour and six-foot swells. He made radio contact with a nearby boat during the crossing, then disappeared after the other vessel pulled ahead and Crockett was lost from sight.

The U.S. Coast Guard began searching at 3:30 p.m. Rescuers found only one life ring from the Eldora C and a small oil slick south of Watts Island, Virginia. Neither Crockett nor his boat were recovered. A lifelong Tangier resident and veteran waterman who raised four sons who also became fishermen, he had been widowed in 1982 and had already lost a son to cancer by the time he vanished.

The circumstances point to him being lost at sea, but no definitive evidence of his fate has been found. Does anyone have memories of Donnie or information about that March 2005 crossing that could help the family?