Fishermen know that the sea is both sweet and cruel. On good days it's your best friend, giving you food and a livelihood; on bad days it's a vengeful enemy you'll be lucky to escape.

Three men from Wedgeport — Neil LeBlanc Jr., Alderic Deviller and Wayne Jacquard — no doubt knew this before they set out on Thursday to fish lobster off Nova Scotia's South Shore, on a boat called the Dwayne Allen.

By the end of the day, one of them would be dead after helping to save another.

Neil LeBlanc Sr., whose son Neil LeBlanc Jr. is the captain of the Dwayne Allen, said his son told him what started the tragedy.

'It pulled him out also'

"What had happened, I guess, is the anchor hooked on the bottom again and just pulled everything like a bungee cord, everything went out," said LeBlanc Sr.

"The trap went out and Wayne had his hands in the trap and it pulled him out also."

LeBLanc Jr. and his fellow fisherman, Deviller, tried to haul Jacquard in as quickly as they could. They rushed to cut a trap so the rope could be put back in the hauler.

"When he hauled it in, Wayne was hanging on the rope," said LeBlanc Sr.

The two men managed to get Jacquard back on board. He wasn't badly hurt, but was incredibly cold after being hurled into the frigid Atlantic.

From bad to worse

The strain of hauling Jacquard in was starting to show on Deviller.

Lucien LeBlanc, another fisherman out on the water Thursday, said he learned what was happening via his radio on board.

"We heard a mayday on Channel 15 from the captain who was looking to get assistance from an ambulance at a nearby public wharf," he said.

He said Leblanc Jr. rushed the Dwayne Allen to shore. But despite the effort to save him, Deviller died of an unknown medical problem. He was about 50 years old.

There's no word yet on a cause of death, and Deviller's family said they are waiting on an autopsy.

"That's the way he wanted to go, trying to save somebody else," said Tony Deviller, his brother. "That's just who he was — a very unselfish person who would have done anything for anybody else."

'He died a hero'

Still, the death is hitting the family hard.

"Tough, it's a shock we're all in shock, but we'll get through it," Tony Deviller said.

LeBlanc Sr. said Jacquard never would have been pulled from the water had it not been for Alderic Deviller.

"Neil would not have been able to haul him in by himself," he said. "There is just no way Neil would have been able to do it alone. Yes, he died a hero."

Nova Scotia's Department of Labour said it is investigating what happened.

'No doubt they feel guilty'

LeBlanc Sr. said his son and Jacquard are both out of hospital now.

"No doubt they feel guilty about it that's for sure, who likes to see that happen? It happens, I mean, you are lucky if you can go through the fishing industry in 30, 40 years, whatever the case may be without having an incident."

LeBlanc Sr. himself spent about 40 years in the fishery before he retired.

"When things like this happen, it happens so fast that you haven't got time to do anything other than do what you have to do.

"They couldn't have done anything better than what they did."