A Wicomico County man drowned yesterday evening near the jetty off the southern edge of Ocean City while trying to save his two sons, who were being washed out to sea by a strong riptide, said the head of the city's beach patrol.
The name of the 38-year-old Fruitland man was not released.
Shortly before 6 p.m., about 20 minutes after lifeguards left their stations, a 911 call was made by someone reporting that two boys, ages 10 and 13, were being pushed out to sea by a southerly riptide and were heading toward the rocky jetty between the public beach and the inlet, said Capt. Butch Arbin of the beach patrol.
Arbin said the father entered the water to save his sons but was unable to reach them before he disappeared under the surface, about 150 feet from the jetty.
He said two employees of a parasail company were in the area and pulled the boys aboard.
Arbin said a Coast Guard vessel arrived about the same time and pulled the unconscious father aboard. The crew performed lifesaving techniques while heading back to their station.
From the station, the man was taken by ambulance to Atlantic General Hospital in Berlin, where he was pronounced dead.
Arbin said the boys were shaken but uninjured.
He said the man's wife and two other children were on the beach many yards from the jetty as the two boys were being washed out to sea and the husband tried to save them.
Arbin said that at 5:25 p.m. each day during the summer, lifeguards order every swimmer ashore and make certain no one is unaccounted for before leaving their stations five minutes later.