SALISBURY, Mass. -- Emergency officials rescued three boaters whose vessel smashed into the north jetty at the mouth of the Merrimack River near Salisbury Beach late Wednesday and they are continuing to search for a fourth person who they were not able to locate in the water.

The Salisbury police chief said officials there have declared the search area a crime scene, which is not something that routinely occurs.

Two people were rescued after sending out a 10 p.m distress call. They made it to the jetty and were taken to a U.S. Coast Guard vessel. One person suffered from a broken leg. The others suffered minor injuries.

"It was just about at high tide and the conditions were horrible. Some of the firefighters tried to make their way out to the jetties and the waves were breaking right over the top of the jetties, halfway out," Salisbury Fire Chief Richard Souliotis said.

No identities were immediately released, but the boat, built in 1974, was said to have been moored out of Hampton Harbor and the missing man was reportedly the captain, a 36-year-old man from Kensington, N.H., according to authorities.

They said the captain is a Coast Guard veteran. While serving in the Coast Guard he became a licensed captain, they said, and confirmed that he was operating the boat at the time of the crash.

The Salisbury Fire Department suspended its search for the missing man about 4 a.m. because of weather conditions, mainly choppy water and low visibility. They said they hope to resume the search later in the morning when the fog lifts.

Officials said the man who was hospitalized is in his 50s and at least two of the four men were related. One of them owned the boat.

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