NY Times – October 15, 2014
by JOSEPH GOLDSTEIN
An 84-year-old man who had gone out fishing with a friend drowned on Tuesday after the boat they were in capsized more than two miles off Staten Island, the authorities said.
The victim was identified by the police as Anthony Accardo of Staten Island.
A rescue boat from the New York Fire Department approached the men’s capsized 18-foot fishing boat shortly before 11 a.m. after getting a radio call for help from a nearby vessel. At that point, the crew saw a man identified as Ivan Delistovich clinging to the bow, said Lt. Ed Poli, a member of the Fire Department who took part in the rescue effort. By then, Lieutenant Poli said, Mr. Delistovich, 82, had been in the water for some 15 minutes.
“He was close to going under,” Lieutenant Poli said, adding that Mr. Delistovich, also of Staten Island, did not have a life jacket on.
After tossing Mr. Delistovich a rope, the crew aboard the 33-foot rescue boat decided to pull alongside him. Lieutenant Poli said that he and a firefighter then pulled Mr. Delistovich aboard.
Mr. Delistovich told the crew that Mr. Accardo had “gone under,” Lieutenant Poli said. After being spotted floating face down in the water about 25 feet away, he was brought onto a Police Department boat but could not be revived, the lieutenant said.
Lieutenant Poli said the men had been fishing earlier near Lemon Creek on Staten Island’s south shore. He said the Coast Guard later found that the boat’s anchor line had wrapped around the outboard engine. The boat most likely got swamped in choppy water and then rolled, he said.
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