This is the final part in a three-part series.

In March 1973, two Norwegian bulk carriers departed Norfolk, Va. bound for Europe, carrying coal. Shortly afterward both were engulfed in a massive nor’easter, southeast of Cape May, N.J.

The lead ship, the Norse Variant, radioed an SOS, saying one of its hatch covers had been breached and the ship was sinking. Nothing was ever heard from the second ship, the Anita.

Three days later a lone sailor, 23-year-old Stein Gabrielsen, was found floating on a raft.