CAPE MAY, N.J. (AP) — A scallop boat that sank off the New Jersey coast in March, killing six of the seven crew members aboard, may have been doomed by a fatal hit-and-run crash on the high seas, the lawyer for its owner said Monday.

Stevenson Weeks, the lawyer for Lady Mary owner Royal Smith Sr., said extensive damage to the boat's rudder, propeller and other equipment indicates that some other vessel crashed into it and kept going.

Weeks said he based his suspicion on "the nature of the damage and the physics involved."

Weeks spoke during a break in a Coast Guard hearing investigating the March 24 sinking of the Lady Mary about 60 miles off the coast of Cape May. He said striking another vessel and leaving the scene can be a crime, just as it is in a motor vehicle.

"If you can prove who did it," he added. "It's tough."

Since the hearing began in May, the Coast Guard has heard several theories regarding the cause of the disaster. Besides the possibility of an at-sea collision, the panel also heard the theory that the Lady Mary's gear may have become tangled on the ocean floor, or with another vessel.

As the hearing resumed Monday following a five-month adjournment that allowed divers to retrieve evidence from the wreck, a shipwreck diver testified about finding the body of one of the victims, Tarzon Smith, in the fish hold of the sunken vessel.

A survival suit, which protects against hypothermia, was found nearby, out of its packaging.

Gatto also testified he found a 6-inch hole punched into the port side of the ship just above the water line, and noted the rear of the boat was damaged, with parts bent inward.

"It was crushed in really good," he said.

A key piece of evidence is likely to be the boat's rudder. Gatto testified that the bent rudder had red paint on its edge, which could suggest a collision with another vessel.

Also Monday, Antonio Alvernaz, the captain of a Massachusetts fishing boat, told of hearing a brief, panicked radio transmission, lasting less than a second. The voice, with a southern accent, sounded scared and appeared to say a single word: "Mayday!"

Alvernaz said he did not call the Coast Guard to report his concern because no one in the dozens of other boats in the area indicated they had heard anything.

The hearing is to resume Tuesday morning. Witnesses are expected to include Royal Smith Sr. of Bayboro, N.C., the boat owner who lost two sons in the tragedy.