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Two Coast Guardsmen Die After Patrol Boat Capsizes Saturday, March 24, 2001 BUFFALO, N.Y. — A Coast Guard boat patrolling the Niagara River along the U.S.-Canada border capsized overnight and two of the four crewmen rescued from the icy waters died Saturday.

The Niagara Gazette, Vino Wong/AP Saturday: U.S. Coast Guardsmen secure the overturned 21-foot boat back to station Niagara in Youngstown, N.Y.

"A 4-foot wave hit the bow of the boat, swamping it and flipping it over," said Adam Wine, chief petty officer at the Coast Guard's Buffalo station.

The 21-foot, rigid-hull inflatable was found floating bow up soon after midnight on a portion of the lower Niagara River leading into Lake Ontario that is divided down the middle by the international border.

Scott Chism, 25, a boatswain mate from Lakeside, Calif., and Seaman Chris Ferreby, 23, a native of Morristown, N.J., were both in cardiac arrest and suffering from hypothermia when they were pulled out of the water about 2 miles east of the mouth of the lower Niagara River.

They were listed in critical condition through the night but both died Saturday morning, Wine said. Chism was married with two children and Ferreby and his wife had an infant.

The other crewmen, machinist mates Michael Moss and William Simpson, were conscious during the rescue. Treated for hypothermia, they both recovered quickly and were expected to be released from a hospital later Saturday, Wine said.

The boat had embarked around 7:40 p.m. Friday from Youngstown, a small town 20 miles northwest of Buffalo, on a law-enforcement patrol. A major part of the crew's mission was to intercept any illegal immigration across the border.

River conditions had been choppy Friday night, with waves of about 1 to 2 feet and occasional swells as high as 3 to 4 feet, Wine said.

The crew was supposed to report in every half-hour but never did, and a multi-jurisdictional search by air and sea began about two hours after the boat had left port.

The rescue was hampered by heavy snow. A fire rescue boat located and rescued the four men, but it was not immediately not clear how long the crew had been in the water.

-- Anonymous, March 25, 2001