New Hampshire

Derry men's fishing trip turned into a rescue on the Merrimack River

By Ali LaFay
alafay@eagletribune.com
Published: July 1, 2009

DERRY — John Mitchell and Mike Farmer weren't expecting anything out of the ordinary when they went fishing on the Merrimack River in Salisbury, Mass., on Saturday night. It wasn't until they heard the screams of fishermen Jorge Menese and Lourval Navarro of Lowell, Mass., that they realized this wasn't going to be a leisurely fishing trip.

"We were on our way back in at about quarter of 9 when we saw two guys waving and screaming," said Mitchell, who has lived in Derry almost all his life.

Menese and Navarro were attempting to anchor their 20-foot recreational boat when they made the mistake of anchoring off the stern, which caused the anchor to wrap around the outboard motor.

"The stern just dropped like a rock and all you could see was the tip of the windshield," Mitchell said. He said he called 911 at 8:42 p.m., and Farmer steered his boat close enough so the two men, who had been clinging to the windshield of their rapidly sinking boat, could be pulled in. The Coast Guard arrived within seven minutes of the initial radio call.

"Just as we had gotten them into the boat, the Coast Guard got there," Mitchell said. "It was amazingly quick."

The near-fatal incident happened in the vicinity of what is called "the toothpick" of the south jetty — the same place where 36-year-old former Coast Guardsman Seth Coellner is believed to have drowned four days earlier.

"I've spent enough time around water to know that bad things can happen," Mitchell said.

This wasn't the first time Mitchell witnessed the dangerous nature of the water firsthand. About 10 years ago, he said, he rescued three canoeists from the rapids of the Merrimack River in Hooksett.

"It was a very similar thing, kind of a desperate situation," Mitchell said.

He attributes his levelheadedness in both cases to his 30 years of boating experience and his time spent on the water with his father and uncles as a child. But saving five lives hasn't gone to his head.

"We aren't heroes, we just did what anybody hopefully would do," Mitchell said.