Ipswich officer singlehandedly rescues five people from capsized boat
He serves as Marine Patrol Supervisor and Assistant Harbormaster -- but Saturday afternoon Patrol Officer Matthew Bodwell of the Ipswich Police Department might have gained a new title: Hero.
Bodwell was working busy Ipswich Bay alone when, about 3:15 PM, a mayday call came in for a capsized boat in the waters off Clark Beach.
“I was in the right place at the right time,” Bodwell said. “It took me less than a minute to get to them.”
Bodwell was guided in that effort by a man waving from the water. When he arrived, the officer found five people clinging to the capsized hull of the boat -- including a 14-month-old girl and a pregnant woman.
“It was a weight shift,” he said. “Somebody went to the back of the boat and the boat went down. And it took on water. And once it took on water it just went over.”
Worse, not one of the boat’s occupants was wearing a life jacket.
“In Massachusetts ‚the state law is if you’re 12 and under it’s mandatory to have a life jacket on,” Bodwell said. “But if you’re an inexperienced boater or not a good swimmer you should probably have a life jacket on.”
Only one of the occupants reported he could swim -- and that meant Bodwell had to move fast with the rescue as Ipswich Bay is known for its strong, fast currents.
“If they let go of that boat they could’ve just been swept out,” Bodwell said. “So I positioned myself on the opposite side of their boat and I started bringing the people on board.”
Once all were rescued, Bodwell brought them to the nearby Ipswich Bay Yacht Club.
“And then we had the paramedics come and everybody got checked out just because they had been in the water for a while,” Bodwell said. “I was just happy with the outcome, happy that everybody was home and everybody was safe.”
And Bodwell hopes this happy ending will lead others to put safety first.
“There’s a boater safety class for people to take,” he said. “I would recommend anybody to do so even if you’ve had a boat for a long time.”
And, Bodwell said, don’t forget to wear a life jacket.
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