When a vessel traffic centre report was sent out Friday night about two people stranded in the Detroit River, a small U.S. mail boat came to the rescue.
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A radio call for assistance had been sent out around 8:30 p.m. Friday by the Windsor-based tour boat Macassa Bay when it noticed a capsizing jet ski and its two occupants stuck in the water beneath the Ambassador Bridge.
The tour boat was having trouble throwing lifebuoys to the two jet skiers when the night crew from the Detroit-based boat mail delivery company J.W. Westcott Co. responded to their radio call.
“We’re on our way,” said Capt. Neil Schultheiss, who along with deckhands Jose Mendez and Dario Cordova jumped into the 50-foot steel-hulled M.S. Westcott, and quickly took over the rescue operation.
Minutes later, the two riders were back onshore and the capsized jet ski was safely moored to their dock.
For the three-man team, which provides marine services to ships on the Detroit River, it was soon back to business-as-usual.
“We were in a rush because we had a mail delivery due and a pilot change to do shortly after that,” Schultheiss told the Star. The crew managed to fulfill their obligations on time, without hampering freight traffic on the river.
“It was a good day,” Schultheiss said, laughing. “We trained for this.”
Founded in 1874, the family-owned company has a long history of helping stranded boaters on the river, with tales of founder J.W. Westcott rescuing people from a rowboat in the late 19th Century still known among crewmates, Schultheiss said.
“It’s really part of the culture of the operation that when a call goes out, there’s not a discussion or hesitation,” he said. “It’s ‘we’re out and we see what we can do’ and we train for it.”
The Michigan-based company typically conducts around 2 to 4 rescues per season. In 2024, a J.W. Westcott crew rescued a Windsor swimmer trying to cross the Detroit River. In 2023, a crew was instrumental in saving the life of a Canadian worker who fell off the Ambassador Bridge and miraculously survived a 140- to 150-foot plunge into the water below.
The company is well suited to help with rescue operations. Staffed 24 hours a day, the crew constantly monitors the radio and can launch a boat in as little as 30 seconds, Schultheiss said.
“When a call goes out about a person in the river, we have kind of a unique ability to get out faster than anybody else,” he said.
