Thursday, 4:30 PM
Partygoer flips canoe, prompting soggy police rescue
By Andrew Ryan, Globe Correspondent
If at first you don't succeed, try, try again -- even if the first time a tipsy canoe dumped you into an icy pond. Just ask Harwich police officer Robert Hadfield, who has been nominated for a commendation for one such soggy rescue early Christmas morning.
Hadfield was the first officer to respond to Seymour Pond at about 5:30 a.m. on Monday to a report of a man screaming for help. With a flash light, the officer was able to locate Wesley Cartier, who was bobbing in the darkness several hundred feet from shore. The 25-year-old from Harwich had been kicked out of a nearby party earlier in the night, and a neighbor’s canoe had caught his eye, police said.
"He was on his way home when he found a boat and decided to go for a midnight paddle," said Lieutenant Thomas Gagnon, adding that it was suspected that Cartier had been drinking alcohol although he was not tested and will not be charged with a crime.
The canoe flipped in the middle of the 181-acre pond, and when police arrived Cartier had been in the frigid water for almost an hour, Gagnon said. While other officers arrived to help, Hadfield spotted his own canoe and took the rescue into his own hands.
He paddled furiously away from the shore, but the canoe flipped and the officer found himself standing in chest-deep water with a sinking boat. Hadfield walked back through the water, lugging the canoe to shore. He dumped out the boat on land, and paddled back on to the pond, police said.
This time, Hadfield was able to reach Cartier, who police said had developed hypothermia from the cold. The officer ferried Cartier back to land, and he was taken to Cape Cod Hospital, treated and released.
Hadfield was also taken to the hospital and treated for a strained back and shoulder. He will remain on light duty for several days, Gagnon said, and his commendation is pending.
