A pair of octogenarian fishing buddies were looking for some fresh catch off the shores of Staten Island Tuesday morning when their boat capsized, killing one and injuring the other.
Close friends Anthony Accardo, 84, and Ivan Delistovich, 82, were two-and-a-half miles from the shore when their 18-foot speedboat’s anchor line got wrapped around the engine, FDNY lieutenant Edward Poli told The Post.
“[It] pointed them right into the swell and the boat swamped,” he explained.
A trio of FDNY responders received a distress call around at 10:35 a.m. and arrived at the scene within minutes.
There they found Delistovich, who was still conscious but clinging to the bow of the boat as he struggled to stay afloat. He’d been holding on for about 15 minutes, Poli added.
“He was going up-and-down with the boat — the waves are breaking on him,” he said.
The fisherman was too weak to grab a rope, so rescuers pulled up alongside him and grabbed him out of the water.
“He said his friend had gone under,” Poli said.
Accardo was spotted floating face down in the water about 25 feet away — and an NYPD harbor unit sidled up to his body to pull him aboard.
Poli and firefighter Brian Murphy, 41, jumped on the boat and performed CPR on Accardo as they drove to shore.
Accardo was taken to Staten Island University Hospital — where he was pronounced dead on arrival, the Coast Guard said.
Delistovich was also taken to the hospital to be treated for minor injuries.
“He thanked us, but he was out of it and hypothermic and exhausted by the trauma of what happened to his friend,” Poli said.
Neither fisherman was wearing a life vest at the time.
“What’s really sad is that if he had had on his life jacket, he would probably be alive right now,” Murphy said of Accardo.
Accardo’s niece, Dorothy Iasiello, said the pair had been friends and fishing companions for over 20 years.
“They’d go a few times a week,” she said. “I’m just still in shock. He was good to everyone.”
Her husband, John, said the friends were actually about to put the boat away for the cold season.
“But the weather was so nice they thought they’d take one more trip,” he said.
Accardo, a retired navy veteran, fished around the shores of New York City all his life and was also an avid painter.
Delistovich is devastated by the loss of his friend.
“Medically he’s okay, but he’s upset, he’s very upset,” John said.
Additional reporting by Danika Fears.