45°
A 76-year-old man and his son were lobstering in Boston Harbor Wednesday afternoon, Aug. 24, when their boat's propeller got caught in some lobster lines. The current pushed The "Glory Days" onto some rocks, and it began to take on water just off Graves Light. They abandoned ship and watched as the boat sank beneath the waves. They would have gone down with it if not for some quick-acting cops and a bobbing cooler that kept them partially afloat and made them visible.
Officers Stephen Merrick and Garrett Boyleof were several minutes away on their boat, the "Robert Guiney," when the call for rescue came in, Boston police said. They raced across the harbor to help.
"We got up to them, they looked nervous. You could see the fear in their face, they were cold, they looked very tired and weak," Merrick said at a Thursday press conference, according to CBS Boston. " They were really struggling to keep their head above the water."
Body-camera footage of the rescue shows how close the men came to drowning.
"Please, I can't hold on much longer," the younger man pleads as officers pull him onto their boat just before 7 p.m.
The men were wet, exhausted, and scared but OK. Paramedics treated them for minor injuries Wednesday and sent them home. Police didn't release their names.
Police said the boat was raised and taken under tow to Thompson's Island.
Click here to follow Daily Voice Suffolk and receive free news updates.
