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Four rescued from sinking cabin cruiser off Peddocks Island
By adamg on Sun, 07/23/2023 - 9:19pm
Sinking boat. Photo by State Police.
State Police report troopers rescued four people after their boat began to sink off the north side of Peddocks Island shortly before 4:50 p.m.
Massachusetts State Police Marine Unit vessel Marine 26, crewed by Troopers Benjamin Zahner and Brendan Heath, which was on patrol in the area, responded immediately to the latitude and longitude broadcast by the boater, an area between Quarantine Rocks and Sculpin Ledge Channel.
The boater then broadcast that he and the three other people on the boat had put on life jackets and were abandoning ship. MSP Marine 26 reached the sinking boat, a 41-foot cabin cruiser, just as the four boaters had entered the water.
Troopers Zahner and Heath pulled the four boaters from the water, assisted by State Police Marine Unit Sgt. Michael Pedersen and a Boston Police vessel. The four boaters - two men and two women, all adults - were transferred onto MSP Marine 15 crewed by Sgt. Pedersen and transported to a Charlestown marina. Boston EMS evaluated one boater for a small laceration; there were no other injuries.
Why the boat sank remains under investigation, State Police say, adding the boat was towed away by TowBoatUS in Boston.
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Comments
Something missing here
The text says that tow boat US towed the boat away. If it was afloat enough to tow, there was no obvious reason for the boaters to abandon ship (“don’t step into a life raft until you are stepping up into it, as the classic advice goes
Thurston Howell
didn’t want his iPhone getting wet.
Floating - Not Safe
You car may not be totaled in an accident but it can't move because something is damaged.
You don't ride in the car on the back of the flatbed to the tow lot, do you?
Peddock's has two spits off of it. This could have been one. One of the really above average pleasures of the Hingham Ferry is seeing a boat get stuck on one of the spits when the tide goes out and Sea Tow has to come out because someone can read a chart.
The Harbor unit doesn't want a hazard to navigation floating around for someone else to hit. That's most likely why it was towed.
I’m not suggesting they
I’m not suggesting they should have stayed on the boat while it was being towed; I’m questioning why they jumped from a still-floating boat into the water. People sometimes do that; it is usually the wrong decision, except in the cases when a rescue craft can’t get close enough to the stricken vessel to allow you to step aboard, and everyone on board are strong, able swimmers and conditions are mild.
I was thinking the same.
People were jumping off the Titanic and it was still afloat.
I think that was a better choice
than jumping off after it went down.
There's a point
As you can imagine, there is a point where it's safer to get off the boat. You don't want to get tangled up in any of the equipment on the boat as it goes down, like a bimini top, bow rail, rigging on a sailboat (shrouds, etc), .... Also, the boat can roll like an iceberg.
On Baywatch, the boat is
On Baywatch, the boat is usually on fire, sometimes even rocked by explosions, so float or no float, you really do need to get off.
Tides
This vessel ran aground in an area that is 2 feet deep at low tide (it’s a shoal, surrounded by deeper water) and is between 7-12 feet deeper at higher tides. There is nothing amiss, Tow Boat waited for a higher tide, and then salvage the vessel, likely by also adding flotation with inflatable bags. This is standard salvage procedure.
The passengers radioed a distress call and were wearing lifejackets - there is nothing to criticize about their decision to abandon ship.
Photo
Maybe photo wasn’t there when you posted, but the photo seems to be the type of condition you leave the vessel. Only other option would have been standing on the bow as the rest is under water
Standing on the bow
Standing on the bow waiting for pickup is almost always preferable to jumping into the water waiting for pickup.
Look at the picture again
You're not gonna stand on that bow.
North side
North side of Peddocks is *way* better than the unpredictable south side in Hull gut.