Local News

Watch: Man rescued from capsized boat off Nantucket

Nick Whitbeck and Joe Tormay, both of Nantucket, were fishing for striped bass when they found the older man floating on his capsized vessel.

Nick Whitebeck

October 20, 2024

2 minutes to read

A man sat atop his capsized boat, attempting to flag down passing vessels, for more than an hour off Nantucket Saturday before a passing boat stopped to rescue him, two fishermen said.

Nick Whitbeck and Joe Tormay, both of Nantucket, were fishing for striped bass a few miles east of Monomoy Island around 4 p.m. Saturday afternoon, when they thought they saw a floating, dead whale, the pair told Boston.com.

“We stopped and saw some fish. We’re taking some casts, and then I happen to notice out of the corner of my eye, sort of this weird black object floating in the water half a mile off the boat,” Tormay said.

Instead, there was a man frantically waving his arms, trying to get their attention. Tormay, a former member of the Coast Guard, said they were able to radio the Coast Guard, get a life jacket to the stranded man, and pull him up on their boat.

The man, who was older, said he had been attempting to flag down boats for about an hour. Three passing boats didn’t see him, according to Tormay and Whitbeck.

“It’s just unbelievably lucky that he was in our sight line, and we were because we were the only boat that went over there, and I think for good reason,” Whitbeck said, saying there were tall, white water waves in the area.

The man didn’t have a life jacket or his cell phone after the boat capsized, the fishermen said.

“It’s a beautiful day, but the real killer was the cold, the water,” Whitbeck said. “Without a life jacket, he would probably slip under.”

Within 20 minutes, the man’s boat was towed, and another nearby boater brought him back to Cape Cod to get home. Tormay said he spoke with a family member, who said the stranded man is doing well.

“It was definitely a godsend, a little bit of a miracle on his behalf because who knows, he would have been floating out there all night. We were a couple hours away from sunset,” Tormay said.