22 Rescued Off Bloodsworth Island

Boat Carrying Elementary School Students on Field Trip Sinks in Chesapeake Bay, 22 Rescued

Twenty-two people, including elementary school children, were rescued from a sinking charter boat in distress by a work boat in the Chesapeake Bay Wednesday, according to police.

A wrecked tower on Bloodsworth Island

The rescue happened around 6 p.m. when a charter boat taking students on a field trip hit something submerged in the waters off Bloodsworth Island, state Department of Natural Resources spokeswoman Candy Thomson said.

"The children put on life jackets as the boat went down," Thomson said. "A nearby waterman pulled all 22 passengers onto his vessel and dropped them safely on the bank of the Honga River."

Thomson said the captain of the stricken boat was airlifted to Peninsula Regional Medical Center. Two others were taken to area hospitals for treatment with non-life-threatening injuries, she added.

Readers may know I've spent a fair amount of time off the shores of Bloodsworth Island in the last three years, on fishing trips with Walleye Pete. The island has been used for a long time by the Navy as a test range, and there are numerous things on the island and in the water that didn't get there naturally (including tanks). While these make excellent fishing structures for those who know where they are, they can be dangerous to a boat unaware of their existence.

I'm glad to hear everyone was rescued, and that the injuries are not life threatening.

UPDATE: As I suspected, but didn't speculate on in the post, the boat was a Chesapeake Bay Foundation charter, carrying school kids on a field trip.

Fourth-grade children from a private school in Chestertown were taking a trip on the charter boat, owned by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, when they crashed into something that was submerged off Bloodsworth Island, in southern Dorchester County.