Crime & Safety

Men Rescued After Boat Capsizes in Reservoir

Two brothers were sent into the chilly water of the Putnamville Reservoir on Sunday morning when their boat capsized.

Two brothers out fishing on a beautiful Sunday morning are thankful they chose to put on life jackets before heading out.

Both brothers ended their fishing adventure with soaking wet clothes and lost their boat battery and a fishing pole but were otherwise OK.

The canoe capsized at about 9 a.m. in the Putnamville Reservoir, near the south side.

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Richard Morrissey of Lynn said he was in the front of the canoe and his brother Kevin, of Peabody, was in the back when the boat started to take on water.

Both men eventually ended up in the water. A bystander and Danvers firefighters helped get the men back to shore. One man was able to walk back to his truck and the other got a ride in the back of a Lyons Ambulance and both were uninjured.

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Richard Morrissey said he comes to Putnamville Reservoir almost every weekend with his brother, and often fish from the shore. This week the two men agreed that they should wear life jackets for the first time in their canoe.

Jim Hartigan of Saugus was out fishing in his waders when some noise caught his attention.

“I heard two guys yelling in the water,” Hartigan said.

Hartigan, who was near one point, rounded the corner to a second point on the south side of the reservoir to see both men in the water.

He saw both of the men – one in their 50s and the other in their 60s – in the water wearing life preservers.

“One guy had very labored breathing,” Hartigan said.

Hartigan said he usually has his cell phone with him but had left it in his car on Sunday. So he started running back toward Locust Street when he met another man who said he heard the yelling but could not find where it was coming from. Hartigan explained the situation and the man called 911.

That is when he undertook a rescue.

“My first reaction was to do something,” Hartigan said. “There was no way they could get out on their own.”

One brother, later identified as Richard, got out of the water first. Richard Morrissey and Hartigan worked together to get Kevin Morrissey to the shore.

Danvers Fire Chief Kevin Farrell said that firefighters launched the department’s Zodiak to assist in the rescue. One of the men swam as far as a half mile, he said. They were about 75 yards off the shore when firefighters arrived.

Hartigan, who said he has fished in the reservoir for 40 years, estimated the water temperatures on Sunday in the upper 40s or lower 50s.


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