Coast Guard Rescues Tug Boat Crew Off Coast of Maryland

OCEAN CITY, Md. (AP) — The Coast Guard says seven people were rescued offshore in Ocean City, Maryland, over the weekend.

WTOP-FM reports that at 3:30 a.m. Saturday, a crew member on the tug Legacy notified the Maryland-National Capital Region of the Coast Guard that a 1,000-foot towing line became entangled and then snapped while towing a 290-foot barge from New Jersey to Guyana.

The crew attempted to capture the tow and the barge but the tow line became tangled in the propeller, which immobilized the vessel, according to a news release from the Coast Guard.

The 154-foot Coast Guard Cutter Lawrence Lawson from Cape May, New Jersey, diverted its path to the direction of the Legacy to help, the news release said. The weather turned out to be an issue when the Cutter Lawrence Lawson was unable to get near the disabled tug or barge.

The Coast Guard launched an MH-65 Dolphin helicopter crew from Coast Guard Air Station Atlantic City, New Jersey, and an MH-60 Jayhawk crew from Coast Guard Air Station Elizabeth City, North Carolina, to hoist the seven people from the vessel. The air crews then transported them to Ocean City Municipal Airport in Maryland with no reported injuries.