Baby Among 15 People Rescued After Boat Sinks Off Cohasset

COHASSET (CBS) – An entire family, including many children, escaped from a boat that was quickly sinking this weekend. They were a mile off Cohasset Harbor, near Minot Light, when their 30-foot boat hit a ledge and started sinking.

Lynda Steverman and her husband had 13 grandkids and friends on board for a birthday party. Paul Steverman was a commercial fisherman for 30 years and was prepared. Everybody had a life-jacket.

Within three minutes, the boat was underwater and the 15 people, including a four-month-old baby, were in the water.

"We weren't scared when we were in the water," said Lynda Steverman. "We only got scared when we were safe and started thinking about it."

The last thing Paul Steverman did was call the Coast Guard with his position.

"It's vitally important that people in trouble call us with their position," said Mike Gagne of the Coast Guard. "If we can find you, we can get you."

The area around Cohasset Harbor and Minot Light is notorious, full of rocks and ledges that can't always be seen. It's treacherous even for experienced boaters.

"We have an old saying that the rocky coast of Maine ends in Cohasset," says Assistant Scituate Harbormaster Bob Douglas. "It's very dangerous."

Harbormasters and the Coast Guard rescued the birthday party and it was a memorable one for the birthday girl, 14-year-old Emily Norton.

"My friends are saying they're going to make up T-shirts that say 'I survived Emily's 14th birthday party,'" Emily told WBZ-TV.