A ferry boat on an early run from West End Thursday morning rescued three men found clinging to an ice chest floating in the water between Tortola and St. John.
U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer Bob Schara with the San Juan Marine Safety Office said the motor vessel Oriole picked up the passengers and crew of a boat named Jagwire off the north coast of St. John. Oriole crew members recovered the people from the sea, he said, "and they reported that the vessel had been swamped by a wave [and] the engine broke down."
Capt. Doug Walters, who was piloting the Oriole on the run from West End to St. John and Red Hook, told the Source he spotted the men floating in the water at about 7:12 a.m. "They were holding onto an ice chest and waving," he said. There was no sign of their vessel, he said, and they told him later that it had sunk.
It took just a few minutes for Oriole crew members Jermaine Brown and Macklin Fahie to put the amidships ladder overboard and bring the men aboard, Walters said.
The captain said the three identified themselves at Larry Ziel, David Hedgezock and Gary Hathawayk, with those spellings, and said they were all U.S. citizens. Because they said they lived on St. Thomas, Walters said, he took them to Red Hook after clearing immigration in St. John, and made a telephone report of the incident to the Coast Guard from there.
According to Walters, this was his first rescue at sea as a ferry captain.
"I never panic for nothing," he said, crediting the crewmen for doing a good job while he stayed in the pilot house at the helm of the vessel.
According to the individuals rescued, the accident occurred between 2 and 3 a.m. Thursday, Schara said.
The Oriole, operated by Native Son Inc., makes daily trips between the British and U.S. Virgin Islands. A ticket agent at the Native Son booth at Red Hook said the Oriole landed the three men at the ferry dock there shortly before 8:30 a.m. There were no reports of injuries.
No further information was available on the identities of those rescued or the origin of their boat.