Emmitsburg Family Drowns in the Bay
by James Rada, Jr.
It was meant to be a pleasant outing, fishing on the Chesapeake Bay, on Sunday, July 17, 1960. The Haley family went out on the waters, but the boat was overloaded and sitting low in the water. The water was rough, and the “14-foot outboard motor boat in which they had been fishing floundered north of Tilghman Island in Harris Creek at the entrance of Dun Cove, according to Maryland state police,” the
Gettysburg Times reported. After the two 5 1/2 horsepower motors quit, the boat could do nothing but float. The waves from passing boats finally swamped the motorboat. It capsized and sank, throwing the passengers into the water.
They flailed around searching for something to hold onto. The motorboat surfaced, and they tried to hold onto the hull, but then it sank again only to finally bob back to the surface and stay there.
The water in Harris Creek, where the boat went down, was 14 feet deep, and the currents were strong.
It was about an hour before the Haleys saw a boat, but it was too far away to hear their calls for help. It was another hour before a boat came close enough to hear the Haleys shouts.
Only four people were rescued, clinging to the upended hull of the boat, but three Haleys were missing. Scovey Sells, age thirty, of Taneytown, was credited with saving all of the rescued passengers. He kept them afloat, along with himself, and helped them get into the boats that came to offer assistance. The three rescued women were Joseph Haley Sr.’s sisters, Rebecca, age sixteen, and Susan, age fourteen, and Joseph’s daughter Josephine, who was only six years old. The incident left her an orphan.
A search was quickly started for the missing Haleys. Edward Whipp, a pilot for the Tidewater Fisheries Commission, spotted the body of Joseph Haley Jr., age four, on Sunday evening around 9:00 p.m. The search was then called off for the night at 10:30 p.m.
When the search resumed on Monday morning, with boats and skin divers helping, Mary Haley, age twenty-seven, was found around 7:00 a.m. Joseph’s body was recovered on Thursday morning, about a mile from where the boat had sunk. Sells told police that he believed Joseph, Sr., had died when the boat went down because he never saw him after it sank.
Joseph was a contractor who worked for his father Joseph Merl Haley in Emmitsburg. He was also a member of the Vigilant Hose Company, and the family was members of St. Joseph’s Catholic Church.
The family was buried in St. Joseph’s Cemetery on Thursday, July 21, four days after the sinking. Rev. Martin Sleasman officiated.
