A heroic U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) rescue team successfully saved four fishermen and a dog after they lost control of their lobster boat in stormy waters off the coast of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, on Monday.
A storm bringing 15-foot waves “blew out their steering capability and the pilothouse windows, the latter of which injuring the captain,” according to the New York Post.
Dramatic footage posted by the USCG Northeast shows the moment that two unidentified crew members of the fishing boat were rescued via helicopter.
Team work makes the dream work! 🚤🚁#ICYMI On Monday, U.S. Coast Guard Station Brant Point and U.S. Coast Guard Air…
Posted by U.S. Coast Guard Northeast on Friday, December 22, 2023
The remaining two crew members — the boat’s master and first mate — remained on the vessel to assist in bringing it to shore. The dog remained on the boast as well.
“Station Brant Point was able to successfully take the fishing vessel in tow to Vineyard Haven on Martha’s Vineyard,” USCG announced.
The video posted by the northeast branch shows a member of the Coast Guard plunging into the freezing waters and swimming towards the boat in distress before cutting to footage of the first fisherman being hoisted into the MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter.
A second fisherman was saved moments later.
“With the boat being dead in the water and caught between multiple shoals, it was the largest sea state I have seen in my four years here and definitely the most aggressive I have ever been in being a newly certified heavy weather coxswain,” said Chad Austin of the USCG’s Station Brant Point to the Nantucket Current.
Austin and another rescuer helped tow the 65-foot fishing vessel, dubbed the Two Dukes.
Nantucket Harbormaster Sheila Lucey, who is also the former senior chief at Station Brant Point, described the mission as “absolutely heroic”:
The conditions were horrendous, and they performed flawlessly … We haven’t had a case like that in years. The training under current leadership at the station has paid off. They are out there every single time the weather gets rough, and the crew they rescued were the beneficiaries of their hard work and dedication.
Station Brant Point Master Chief Lance Wiser also praised the crew, noting that the members had just been training in rough waters the previous day.
“We went out in the worst of the storm yesterday for training, preparing for cases like this,” Wiser told the Nantucket outlet. “I couldn’t be more proud of this crew. First heavy weather SAR [search and rescue] case of the winter season. Fifteen to 20-foot seas, shoals all over. The [fishermen] were extremely grateful.”
