Merrimack Valley

Plaistow, N.H. man, 25, dies in Hampton Beach fishing accident

By Bill Kirk
bkirk@eagletribune.com
Published: June 15, 2009

HAMPTON, N.H. — A 25-year-old Plaistow, N.H. man has died and a man from South Hampton, N.H. is being treated for hypothermia following a fishing boat accident that took place just 50 yards off Hampton Beach yesterday.

Barry Arnold of Plaistow was a passenger in the 14-foot Sea Nymph when it was hit by a huge wave about 7 p.m., washing both him and the operator of the vessel, 46-year-old Christian Frey of South Hampton, into the rough sea, according to the New Hampshire Marine Patrol Bureau.

Arnold was found by one of the dozens of onlookers who watched the situation from the beach, adjacent to Concord Avenue. But he could not be revived and was pronounced dead at Exeter Hospital, succumbing to hypothermia and cardiac arrest, according to a report from the Patrol Bureau, which is investigating the accident. He was in the water an estimated 90 minutes, police said.

Frey, meanwhile, was pulled from the sea by a nearby boat and revived by rescue personnel after about 45 minutes in the water. He was treated and released at Exeter Hospital, the Marine Patrol Bureau said.

At the time of the original call, the Hampton Fire Department launched a boat and the Coast Guard launched four boats from the Portsmouth Harbor and Merrimack Station in Newburyport.

Hampton firefighters also put a rescue boat in the water. Searchers concentrated on the area a couple hundred yards north and south of Concord Street, crisscrossing back and forth, recovering clothing and debris, while other searchers paced the beach.

At 8:08 p.m., a searcher on the beach was seen dashing into the waves, as a woman screamed, "They found him!"

Arnold was pulled from waves about 100 yards south of Concord Street, and about 10 yards offshore. He was quickly loaded onto a stretcher and placed on the back of a Gator — a vehicle similar to a golf cart used for beach rescues — and taken to a waiting ambulance.

Firefighters could be seen trying to resuscitate him as the Gator drove along the beach. A Coast Guard rescue helicopter arrived just a couple minutes after Arnold's body had been found.

The wind had been blowing strongly off the frigid water all day, causing white-caps earlier. By the time of the accident, the wind was still blowing fairly briskly, but the white caps were gone and waves were about 2 feet.

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Staff writer Jill Harmacinski contributed to this report.