Floating Teen Rescued, Reluctantly, From Ice

Chesapeake Bay enthusiasts generally abandon the pursuit of water recreation during winter's most bitter months.

But Bill Doody and Richard Youngk Jr., both 16, have made a habit -- against what must be the advice of all experts everywhere -- of jumping from one floating ice chunk to another in the shallows near the Chesapeake Bay Bridge.

Sunday, while doing just that, they tried to paddle a mini-iceberg toward the mouth of the Little Magothy River on Cape Saint Claire. A crack appeared, Doody went one way and Youngk went another, setting the stage for a rescue by an Anne Arundel County police officer.

Cpl. Michael Harper, summoned to the area shortly before 2 p.m. by a woman who reported a child stranded on the ice, said he had to look twice before he spotted Youngk "being blown out" into the bay.

"I knew I had to do something," Harper said yesterday. "I couldn't wait on a rescue boat."

He grabbed a canoe, although he said he had never been in one and is not a strong swimmer. A crowd, including Youngk's mother, had gathered, and Harper asked for help. Youngk's mother volunteered, and they made for her son, who was several hundred feet from shore, by police estimates.

Harper, 6 feet 8 inches and 220 pounds, said he used his weight to crush the ice sheet so the canoe could pass. As they approached the teen, Harper said, he could see that the ice chunk, not quite buoyant enough to support Youngk, was "totally submerged."

"He actually said, 'I don't know. I think I could have swum back in,' " Harper said. He interpreted that to mean the teen was embarrassed.

Doody, a sophomore at Broadneck High School in Annapolis, said he and Youngk, a junior there, had tried to dissuade the woman from calling 911 -- to no avail. They did not believe they were in danger.

"My buddy heard the siren, and he was actually mad," Doody said. "He was like, 'Dude, I'm fine. I can paddle in if I need to. I just don't want to.' "

Youngk did not respond to a phone call seeking comment yesterday. Doody said the water in that area is just three feet deep. Although he insisted he and his friend were not in need of rescue, he said he does not "blame" the authorities who did the rescuing.

"They probably followed whatever rules they had to," Doody said. "But me and him, we've lived on the water our whole lives."