After takeoff, the airplane was climbing through 2,500 feet mean sea level (MSL), when the engine began to vibrate severely and make loud metallic banging sounds. After about 10 seconds, the engine experienced a full loss of power, and the pilot was unable to get it restarted. Because he was too far from shore to be able to glide to land, he elected to ditch the airplane next to a fishing trawler. The airplane nosed over at impact with the water and sank to a depth of about 300 feet after the pilot safely egressed. The airplane and its maintenance log books were not recovered.