JoeSpareBedroom wrote:
"HK" wrote in message
...

4 men rescued from Chesapeake Bay
No serious injuries suffered after boat sank off Anne Arundel County coast

By a Baltimore Sun reporter
7:58 AM EDT, August 6, 2007

Rescuers from federal, state and local agencies pulled four men to safety
early today from the Chesapeake Bay after their boat sank in choppy waters
in southern Anne Arundel County, officials said.

Three of the men were in the water for about three hours and another was
rescued about an hour after a 25-foot Bayliner sank off Herrington Harbor
in Deale. All four were treated at a hospital, but none suffered serious
injuries, officials said.

The first call came in to the Maryland Department of Natural Resources
Police about 10:30 p.m., and crews from that agency and the U.S. Coast
Guard stationed in Annapolis responded. Fire boats from a volunteer
station in Anne Arundel County also headed out.

Petty Officer Joshua Rihm with the U.S. Coast Guard said this morning that
crews had difficulty finding the boat. "It went down pretty quick," he
said, when its propellers got caught in fishing lines that "pulled the
boat down." He said it was raining and waves were one to two feet.

After about 90 minutes, Rihm said a Coast Guard vessel fired off a flare
to light up the area. "We then heard a voice," Rihm said. "We heard one
guy who stayed next to the boat yelling." He said Anne Arundel County
firefighters rescued that man.

More than an hour later, other crews rescued the three other men who were
in the water, and wearing life jackets.

The name of the boat and identities of the victims were not immediately
available this morning.


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No, *I* won't say it.


What the hell kind of fishing line would do that?




I think it more likely that the boat's prop got tangled in some damned
tangle of crab pot lines, and the boat kept running forward, pulling the
stern down so that waves could flood aboard.

The only nearly serious boating mishap I've had in the last 20 years
involved something similar. I was heading seaward in the St. John's
River in Jax near the riverbank (a huge freighter was heading out, not
too far away) when the lower unit got snagged by some unseen lines under
the water. We could not accelerate away, and the damned freighter was
bearing down on us. At first, I could not figure out what the hell was
wrong, but then I stopped the motor and saw that the lower unit was
caught. The lines were NOT wrapped around the prop. The lines were
damned tight. Fortunately, I had my very sharp fishing knife handy. If I
hadn't been able to free us, the freighter would have.