Video: Coast Guard Rescues Family from Deserted Farmhouse After Boat Burns

The U.S. Coast Guard is recounting the harrowing experience of a family rescued after their boat burned, and they hastily swam to shore. Tragically, although they were saved, the wife-mother of the family, a 73-year-old woman, succumbed to her injuries days later.

A search operation had been launched on Tuesday night, October 21, after another family member reported that the three people, a father aged 72, his 73-year-old wife, and their 37-year-old son, were overdue from a weekend boating expedition. They had departed on October 17 on a 30-foot motorboat named Third Wave and were planning to anchor between Massachusetts and Martha’s Vineyard before returning on October 21.

The USCG and local police were having no success in locating the family. They reported that calls to the cellphones were going to voicemail, and they were getting undetermined, non-specific positions from the pings of the phones.

Wednesday morning, the Coast Guard received a call, “mayday, mayday” with the son frantically telling them that they were stranded in a deserted farmhouse on Tarpaulin’s Cove, Naushon Island. He said the boat had burnt, and they had escaped by swimming to shore and were suffering from burns.

The son had gone out foraging along the coast on Wednesday when he happened on the vessel’s marine radio, which had somehow washed ashore when the boat sank. He described a chaotic scene of awakening on Monday night to find the boat on fire and rescuing his parents. The three of them were somehow able to get off and swim to shore, where they found the empty building for shelter. The island is reported to be sparsely populated after having been privately owned by the Forbes family for many years.

 

 

The Coast Guard airlifted the three individuals from the island, and they received emergency medical care. They were taken to a hospital on Cape Cod, and the father was later transferred to a Boston hospital burn unit. Another family member told the local news on Friday that their mother had passed away.

A Coast Guard spokesperson said that quick thinking and having quality equipment allowed the family to escape the vessel and ultimately obtain assistance. Another family member said the son, Tyler Sullivan, was a hero for rescuing his parents from the burning boat. 

The Coast Guard and the Massachusetts State Police are investigating the incident and what happened with the pleasure boat.