The search for a man who disappeared on a very short boat ride in Gwynn’s Island last week has come to a sad conclusion. An exhaustive search turned up no sign of the missing boater, and his jon boat has been found with no one on board.
Timothy Henderson, known locally as “Pirate Daddy”, was reported overdue on Monday, Nov. 24. He was last seen just before 5 p.m. Sunday the 23rd, leaving aquaculture business Salty Bottom Blue Oysters in his dark-hulled jon boat and heading for the Hole in the Wall restaurant. The boat ride should have been less than a half mile long.
The Coast Guard launched a search, asking the public for information and sharing a photo of Henderson dressed up in pirate garb with a parrot. Coast Guard Sector Virginia responded to the scene with USCG Cutter Sailfish, crews from Station Milford Haven and Station Cape Charles and a Jayhawk helicopter from Air Station Elizabeth City, all searching for Henderson. Virginia Marine Resources Police and the Poquoson Fire Department also searched.
The agencies search for a combined 48 hours, saturating a small search area that ultimately covered an overlapping 750 square miles, according to Coast Guard Sector Virginia spokesman Lt. Michael Long.
“A [shallow-hulled] smaller vessel like that doesn’t have much bite into the water,” Lt. Long tells us. “Jon boats, in particular, can drift quite a bit.”
Search crews had no luck in locating Henderson, and the Coast Guard suspended its active search around 1:45 p.m. on Nov. 26, assessing that further search efforts were unlikely to change the outcome.
At the time that Henderson and his boat disappeared and during the search that followed, the air temperature was 54 degrees and the water temperature, 58 degrees. Predicted winds were 10-15 miles per hour with gusts up to 20. “Mother Nature always has a say,” Lt. Long says, noting that weather, currents and other factors can impact any search.
The day after the Coast Guard suspended its search, a good Samaritan discovered Henderson’s jon boat south of the area where he was last seen, near Haven Beach in Mathews County.
