On November 13, 1980, Mays was last seen about sixteen miles off the coast of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, at 1:30 p.m. with his friend and fellow commercial fisherman, Ted Wall. Earlier that day, another fisherman had assisted them in repairing and restarting the 280-horsepower Volvo engine on their 23-foot Sea-Ox commercial fishing boat. The Sea-Ox, equipped with foam flotation, is designed to stay afloat even when swamped, making it difficult to sink. The boat had a fiberglass center console, black outriggers, beige sides, and was registered under NC9304 AK with a manufacturer’s number of XNA30250M79J. A search began at 9:00 p.m. and lasted two weeks, covering 104,000 square miles, but no trace of the boat or the men was ever found.