Estimated read time: Less than a minute
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
BALTIMORE, Jun 12, 2006 (UPI via COMTEX) -- Baltimore publisher Philip Merrill went missing from a solo sailboat excursion in Chesapeake Bay and was feared dead Monday.
The 72-year-old chairman of Capital-Gazette Newspapers set out Saturday afternoon in his 41-foot yacht, which was found unattended several hours later, the Baltimore Sun reported.
The U.S. Coast Guard and Maryland Natural Resources Police began searching about 100 square miles of the bay but hopes rapidly dwindled Sunday, the newspaper said.
"As time goes by, chances of survival are less and less," said Col. Mark Chaney, superintendent of the Natural Resources Police.
Merrill's 1988 sailboat was spotted in shallow water by two personal watercraft operators who steered the boat into deeper waters and alerted authorities, Chaney said.
From 1990 to 1992, Merrill served in Brussels as assistant secretary-general of NATO, and worked from 2002 until early last year on an appointment by U.S. President George Bush as president and chairman of the Export-Import Bank of the United States.
URL: www.upi.com Copyright 2006 by United Press International
