Two teens were rescued from Puget Sound on June 13, 2025 after their canoe overturned on the way to Blake Island. Riley Mueller and Blake Butherus were on their way to the island around eight in the evening to meet family and camp overnight when the incident occurred.
Walla Walla ferry rescues two teens from capsized canoe near Port Orchard, Washington
While the route was familiar to the pair, both 18 years old, the canoe was new to them and Mueller shared with Komo News that the higher seats made the canoe less stable than the pair was used to. The teens also shared that the water was calm throughout their paddle and the capsize occurred when they decided to practice a new stroke in preparation for an upcoming canoe trip in Canada. With both paddlers leaned to one side, the canoe flipped.
“We immediately flipped it, which we were not ready for at all,” Butherus shared in an interview with Komo News.
The teens shared that they were wearing their life jackets and were able to get back in their canoe but it filled with water and they flipped again. Critically, the teens shared that they had forgotten a bailer to get the water out of the canoe.
Now in the water, Mueller and Butherus held on to the canoe and swam but were beginning to get cold in the waning sunlight. The teens were spotted in the water and someone called for help.
“I heard ambulances…I’m like, I wonder if those are for us,” said Riley Mueller to Komo News. “Then…we see the big ferry just turn straight for us.”
From the water the teens saw the Walla Walla ferry angled for them. The ferry launched a rescue boat and pulled the pair out of the water. On the shore in Bremerton, the teens were treated for hypothermia and met by family.
Walla Walla crew rescues multiple paddlers in 2025
According to a report by Second Mate James Kuijper, upon receiving the radio call from the U.S. Coast Guard requesting assistance in rescuing two people in the water from an upturned canoe the Walla Walla changed course to respond and prepped a rescue boat and gathered emergency supplies. Passengers with medical training offered to help and a plan was made to treat victims for hypothermia.
The teens were quickly and carefully pulled from the water and wrapped in emergency blankets and firefighter jackets in the rescue boat.
“They kept shivering uncontrollably until emergency medical services took them ashore in Bremerton. They were awake, responsive and thankful — though a bit embarrassed,” wrote Second Mate James Kuijper.
The rescue of the teens isn’t the first time the Walla Walla crew rescued a paddler in 2025; in mid-May near Rich Passage, the crew of the Walla Walla successfully rescued a kayaker after passengers spotted a partially submerged kayak and alerted the crew.
According to King 5 News, Washington State ferry crews assisted in as many as 115 rescues in 2024.
Editor’s Note: initial copy has been updated to reflect that the date of the incident as June 13, 2025 rather than July 13, 2025.
