Local Mermaids Rescued

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Brown students rescued from Bay after trying to swim to lighthouse

• Read about Conimicut Point Lighthouse

BARRINGTON, R.I. -- Two Brown University students who tried to swim from Barrington to the Conimicut Point lighthouse were rescued from Narragansett Bay Sunday evening when they were swept away by the current.

The students, Ashley Whaley, 18, and Katherine Murphy, 20, told police they walked from Rhode Island School of Design's Tillinghast Farm beach on Nayatt Road in Barrington to the end of Nayatt Point, where they decided to try to swim to the lighthouse off Warwick, according to the police report.

Somewhere into their swim, the students realized the lighthouse, about a mile from Nayatt Point, was further away than they thought. Murphy told police she decided to swim back to Barrington while Whaley kept going toward the lighthouse.

As she swam back toward shore, Murphy realized the incoming tide was sweeping her past the point and north toward the Providence River by the strong current, so she began calling for help, according to the police report.

Those calls were heard by several people on shore, including friends of the students, who called police around 7:45 p.m., and John and Jim Anderson, who were having a Mother's Day cookout on Nayatt Road. The Andersons asked neighbor David Beitle if they could use his kayak to reach the swimmer and he agreed to join them in a second kayak.

Thick fog - a Dense Fog Advisory was issued by the National Weather Service - along with chop kicked up by stiff southwest winds made it difficult for rescuers to see the swimmers and it took around 30 minutes to find Murphy. The Andersons pulled her into their kayak and took her to shore, where she was treated by East Providence paramedics, but did not require a trip to the hospital.

Then the search resumed for Whaley, who remained in the water until around 9:30 until her calls for help were heard and she was picked up by a Portsmouth public safety vessel, one of six from the Narragansett Bay Marine Task Force that had joined the search.

"We could hear her but could not see her because of the fog," Beitle said in a phone interview.

When she was finally pulled from the water by the Portsmouth crew, Whaley was taken to Conimicut Point in Warwick, where she was then driven by ambulance to Rhode Island Hospital and treated for mild hypothermia, said Barrington Fire Lt. Jason Fanion.

The water temperature at the mouth of Narragansett Bay Sunday was 51 degrees.