Pennsylvania man died after boat capsized in Oregon Inlet, New Jersey man lived after using detergent bottle for floatation

The 50-foot sportfishing vessel was en route from New Jersey to Beaufort for repairs when it capsized at Oregon Inlet, leading to one man’s death and minor injuries to another man. (Photo courtesy North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission)

By Corinne Saunders

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NAGS HEAD — A man from Pennsylvania died, and a man from New Jersey survived in part by using a detergent bottle to help him float after their vessel capsized Saturday afternoon in Oregon Inlet, according to the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission.

Francis Hennigan Jr., 50, of Glenmoore, Pennsylvania, and Taylor Flannery, 29, of Point Pleasant, New Jersey, were transporting a 50-foot sportfishing vessel from Cape May, New Jersey, to Beaufort for repairs when the boat capsized while navigating Oregon Inlet, a North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission spokesperson said.

At the time it capsized, the boat was operating on three of its four engines, and both occupants entered the water without life jackets, according to the spokesperson.

U.S. Coast Guard personnel rescued Flannery, who was transported to Outer Banks Health Hospital in Nags Head with minor injuries, while “Hennigan was located shortly afterward, unresponsive, and was pronounced deceased,” the spokesperson said in an email.

Hennigan was a husband and father of three. A GoFundMe set up to support his family raised over $185,000 in five days, as of publication time.

Flannery suffered a foot injury and was back home in New Jersey on Tuesday, according to NBC 4 New York.

His was “just a remarkable story of survival,” said Sgt. Anna Barbosa of the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission.

“He very much saved his own life,” she continued. “From what he told us…he took that detergent bottle, emptied it and then tucked it underneath his shirt to stay afloat until eventually he did come across the life jacket.”

The Coast Guard found Flannery in about 30 minutes, Barbosa said he told them.

“They were out there [searching], but…it’s hard to find just a person in the water,” she said.

The Island Free Press first reported this boating tragedy.

Hennigan’s death marks the second boating-related death at Oregon Inlet this year.

Carlson Bryan “BJ” Johnson III, 49, of Colington, was also not wearing a life jacket when he died during a recreational fishing trip out of Oregon Inlet in May.

Johnson drowned, according to his autopsy, but that incident left many unanswered questions: “We did not ever recover the vessel, and his dog was never found, so we really have no idea what happened there,” Barbosa said.

She had said at the time that is rare to not find capsized boats.

The North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission has reported two other boating-related deaths in the local region this year to date.

On July 22, a Maryland man “had a medical emergency and fell overboard and drowned” in the Currituck Sound, the spokesperson said.

Scott Johnson, 44, was wearing a life jacket. However, it was not one designed to turn people face up in the water, so because he was initially unconscious when he fell from the rental pontoon boat, the life jacket didn’t flip him over, Barbosa said.

The most recent area boater death prior to Oct. 18 was on Sept. 6, when a 75-year-old man from Roanoke Rapids “fell off his boat and drowned” in the Chowan River, the spokesperson said.

That man, James Newton, was not wearing a life jacket, according to Barbosa.

Officials encourage all boaters to wear life jackets.

The Chowan River flows into the Albemarle Sound near Edenton.

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