July 28, 2011 – Two dramatic rescues on the Chicago River this month were enough for crews of Wendella Chicago Water Taxis to receive official recognition from the U.S. Coast Guard Thursday morning.

Commander Robert E. Bailey, Jr., presented letters of appreciation to six Wendella employees who helped save 12 people in two separate incidents.

On July 2, near the DuSable Bridge at Michigan Avenue, a boat with 11 passengers on board caught fire. Water taxi captain Cory Brooks saw smoke, contacted the ship’s captain, and maneuvered along side the distressed vessel. He and his crew directed the other crew to secure their main engines, isolate the ventilation system, and put on life jackets.

According to the Coast Guard, Brooks – along with senior deckhand Eric Mackey, chief engineer Marcus Davis, and engineer Jessica Herum – transferred passengers off the vessel and helped push it to the river wall. The Chicago Fire Department then put out the fire.

Bailey called the response “impressive” and said the actions of the Wendella crew turned “a potentially deadly boating disaster into a minor boating incident.”

Two weeks later, another rescue

On July 18, water taxi captain Ragna Russo and senior deckhand David Blackford spotted a woman in the water near the Roosevelt Road Bridge on the south branch of the Chicago River. The woman had apparently fallen from the bridge and was clinging to construction material along the bank.

“When the woman lost her grip and fell into the water,” reads the letter from the Coast Guard, “Captain Russo…quickly maneuvered the [water taxi] to within a few feet of the exhausted woman and pulled her from the water. Once on board, they quickly administered first aid and transferred her to a waiting ambulance at the nearby River City marina. The woman was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where she was listed in good to fair condition.”

River City was an obvious choice for Russo. “We talk about having places where you can drop people off if there is an issue, and River City has always been one of those places because there’s good access by road for cars and excellent access by water.”

Bailey called it a “textbook response to the person in the water.”

“Their instinctive actions to respond to the distressed person…as she was clinging to an exposed piece of rebar extending from the face of the canal wall, were exemplary.”

Blackford had to try more than once to throw life rings to the woman but she was soon pulled to safety. He helped CFD personnel administer first aid and treat the woman for shock before paramedics took her to the hospital.

“We train for it at least once a month,” said Blackford, “but this, for me, was the first time it was an actual scenario and not a drill.”

Said Captain Russo, “It’s what we were supposed to do. We just did what we had been trained to do and it felt good to make a difference.”

Every day, says Commander Bailey, there are about 57 passenger vessels operating in downtown Chicago, creating a “wonderful environment for everybody to experience the waterway but invariably there will be times when certain…incidents come into play, and you need to make sure that you have professional mariners that are competent and capable on scene.”

Wendella president Michael Borgstrom told his staff, “Honestly, I really do get emotional with this stuff. This is great stuff. You should all be very proud – I am.” Borgstrom (right) with Commander Robert E. Bailey, Jr.  Listen to the presentation (Duration: 9:24)