ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, June 28, 1996 TAG: 9606280066
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: LA PLATA, MD.
SOURCE: Associated Press
Four men made it to safety after spending a harrowing night in the Potomac River when their boat struck something in the river and sunk.
Maryland Natural Resources Police said the four men were traveling north in the Potomac at about 9 p.m. Tuesday when their 23-foot boat struck something near Chicamuxen Creek in Charles County.
The boat began to take on water and the four men used flotation devices to try to reach the Virginia shore. The boat sank in 18 feet of water.
One of the men, William Pedersen, 31, of Stafford, Va., was using an inflated inner tube, but it was slowing him down, Natural Resources Police said. Another man, John F. Brown, 26, of Edensburg, Pa., went back to help him.
As the two rested, the wind and tide pushed them toward to the Maryland shore, which they reached in about 40 minutes.
In the meantime, the other two men, Daniel Bennett, 39, and William Garretson, 31, both of Stafford, continued toward the Virginia shoreline.
Pedersen and Brown reached shore, called 911, and a rescue boat was dispatched to pick up the other two men just before 2 a.m. Wednesday. All four men were treated and released at a rescue staging area in Smallwood State Park.
Natural Resources Police say they do not know what the boat struck but believe it may have been a piece of debris.
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