Coast Guard assists boat off Montauk

Coast Guard personnel were lifting the four-member crew of a distressed fishing vessel into a helicopter Tuesday after the ship took on too much water and began to sink about 40 miles south of Montauk, officials said.

"The helicopter is on scene and they are abandoning ship," said Petty Officer Thomas McKenzie, a spokesman for the Coast Guard. "Everybody is going into the helicopter."

Earlier Tuesday, the four-member crew of the Johanna Lenore put out a distress call that it was taking on water and that its pumps were not able to expel the water faster than it was flowing onto the ship, officials said.

Another fishing vessel, the Shelby Ann, tried to assist the crew of the Johanna Lenore by passing them a pump, but it could not keep up with the flooding either.

As a precaution, the crew put on survival suits and called for help.

Their distress call was received by Coast Guard Sector Long Island Sound's command center, which dispatched a helicopter from the Coast Guard's Cape Cod air station to help the Johanna Lenore's overworked pumps.

The dispatchers also sent a 47-foot motor lifeboat to the scene from Coast Guard Station Montauk.

But McKenzie said the Johanna Lenore was in such bad shape when the helicopter arrived at about 4 p.m. that officials decided to rescue the crew by lifting them into the helicopter.