Article May 11, 1998 Issue

Suddenly the lake steamer stopped

The part prayer played in rescuing capsized boaters

By Connie Wahl Byers

It Was A Beautiful summer day. I was working aboard a five-hundred-passenger party boat that was taking tourists for a cruise to a local picturesque bay. With a few weeks of training behind me, I was in charge of the company's entire operation for this particular day. Normally, I worked in the offices at the dockside, but on this occasion, I also had to travel on one of the boat's regularly scheduled trips in order to instruct a new crew member.

We were approximately midway between home base and the usual destination point, when suddenly the boat stopped, began to turn, and then remained steady. Prior to the boat's change in course, I had been working below. Swallowing my initial fear at this sudden change, I silently and repeatedly prayed, while making my way toward the captain's station.

When I got there, I learned that a tiny speedboat with five youths had been recklessly riding the waves made by our boat and had just capsized. None of the victims appeared to be wearing a life jacket. The mountain waters were chilly, and it was important that these young people be rescued promptly. But our bulky paddle boat, the largest vessel in these waters, was anything but handy under such circumstances. Also, if the crew failed to grab hold of one of the victims, the individual might be pulled under by the boat's rotating wheel.

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