It was all hands on deck Monday afternoon when a small vessel swamped and partially sunk while docked at Rockwell Park in downtown Bristol, at one of the slips used by the small fleet of working fishermen. The 24-foot boat belongs to Pete Brown, and he uses it for harvesting oysters, five or six days a week, off of his three oyster farm leases: two in Portsmouth and one in Bristol Harbor.

Mr. Brown was plowing heavy snow up on Metacom Avenue around 7 a.m. when he received a call that his boat was listing. By the time he made the five-minute drive to the Rockwell dock, he could see the air bubbles rising as his engine was swamped with seawater.

“That’s a $22,000 engine, the nicest I’ve ever had,” he said. “It worked perfect.”

Mr. Brown’s normal snow day routine would have him wrapping up with his plow in mid-morning, then making his way to the dock to shovel out his boat. But the heavy and wet snow from Monday’s storm did its damage before Mr. Brown could complete his rounds.

The tide was high first thing in the morning, complicating salvage efforts. Around 1 p.m., at low tide, a good-sized crew of fellow fishermen went to work securing the boat and trying to winch it back up to the waterline. “I’m very lucky that my friend Dan Eagan had a power winch, and so using that, along with four come-along winches, we were able to get it out.”

While the salvage of the boat was ongoing, there were other tasks that needed attention. For example, Joe Marks used a hook to corral some of Mr. Brown’s gear, which was scattered in the shallow water around the swamped vessel. Asked what the next steps were, Mr. Marks said, “Well, he’s going to need to take it in for service, isn’t he?”

Another passing fisherman asked if they cold use another set of hands, but was told they had more than enough at the moment. “This is how this fleet is,” he said, walking down the dock to tend to his own boat. “If someone sinks his boat, everyone pitches in to get it up.”

The boat was towed around to the State Street dock, from where Mr. Brown was able to trailer it home.

Despite the rough day, Mr. Brown was feeling relatively optimistic Monday night, after draining and then filling the engine crank case with diesel, and rinsing the vessel with fresh water. “I’m hoping we can get the engine started tomorrow,” he said.

“My batteries were shut off, which is a good thing. When they’re off and your boat goes under, it saves your electrical. Though I will almost certainly need a new starter.”

All in all, Mr. Brown, who began working as a commercial fisherman in 1972, was feeling pretty lucky. “I’ve gone almost 30 years without sinking a boat,” he said. “So that’s a good streak.”