Officials recovered the body of a 65-year-old man after a boat was discovered lodged against the rocky shoreline of Little Misery Island off the coast of Salem on Saturday. The search included multiple harbormasters and the US Coast Guard, officials said Sunday evening.
The man was identified Tuesday as John Masiz of Gloucester, according to Sharyn Lubas, a spokesperson for the Essex district attorney’s office. She said the death remains under investigation pending an autopsy by the state medical examiner’s office.
Bill McHugh, Salem’s harbormaster, said Sunday that his team helped recover the body.
“We recovered the boat and we recovered the owner,” McHugh said Sunday evening.
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Searchers found Masiz’s body after 10:30 p.m. Saturday, Lubas said. She said no foul play was suspected, but the death remains under investigation. The reason for the boat’s crash remains unclear.
Tim Peters, owner of TowBoatUS in Boston and northern Massachusetts, said his company was still working to clear the wreckage on Sunday evening, and he was not sure how long the effort would take. Peters said crews had spent the day recovering parts of the vessel.
“Mother Nature kind of took care of a lot of the wreck removal, so we’re just retrieving chunks,” he said. “When the weather allows, we’ll go and recover what’s left.”
Peters said the initial call came in around 5 p.m. Saturday, after someone spotted the vessel and called the Coast Guard. He said the search operation took priority over clearing the wreckage Saturday evening.
He said the side of Little Misery on which the boat is lodged is exposed to easterly weather, which can be harsh.
“We’re just doing what we can with the conditions,” he said. “There was a pretty good swell today, actually more than we had yesterday; that’s what really broke up the boat: the wave action just pounding this thing against the rocks.”
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Little Misery Island is owned by the Trustees of Reservations, a historic preservation and land conservation nonprofit. The 4-acre isle sits off the southern shoreline of 83-acre Great Misery Island.
It was named for a terrible experience endured by a 1620s shipbuilder, Captain Robert Moulton, who was stranded on the island for three days in a winter storm.
Search underway after boat crashes against rocks on Little Misery Island off Salem
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Daniel Kool can be reached at daniel.kool@globe.com. Follow him @dekool01. Kajsa Kedefors can be reached at kajsa.kedefors@globe.com.