sank, leaving the two crew clinging to a marker buoy out at sea.

The two brothers -- who have not been identified -- set out in their 17-foot boat on Monday afternoon -- but just half an hour later, the boat sank about two and a half miles south of North Rock.

One of the men yesterday spoke to The Royal Gazette but only on condition of anonymity.

And he was clearly surprised by the amount of interest in the story.

He said he and his brother had taken the second-hand runabout out for the first time since buying it.

The sinking happened so quickly the men had no time to make a distress call.

"It took about two minutes to go down,'' he said.

When asked what he and his brother did after the boat disappeared, he said: "just swimming''.

After about 25 minutes in the water, he said they were picked up by a fishing vessel which happened to pass by.

"There were just a couple of holes that hadn't been fixed,'' he said. "It wasn't a big deal, just a little thing.'' Timothy Patton, aboard the barge Rougalator , yesterday retrieved the vessel, which was lying in about 65 feet of water.

He said the operation took "a couple of hours'' and the hardest part was finding exactly where the boat had sunk.

After raising the boat back to the surface, it was pumped out and towed ashore.

Later, mechanics working on the vessel said rear bilge holes placed too close to the water line caused the sudden swamping.

Water entering the boat built up faster than its automatic pumps could remove it.

They suggested previous owners may have plugged the holes to prevent flooding.

And one of the mechanics estimated there was at least a "few thousand dollars worth'' of damage to the electrical system.

Like the brothers, the mechanics also saw the incident as less than newsworthy.

"These things happen,'' said one. "When you're out there, anything can happen.''