Man trying to swim across Detroit River from Windsor, Ont., was rescued by a mail boat

A man trying to swim across the Detroit River from Windsor to Detroit was rescued Monday night, according to a riverboat mail company.

The crew of the J.W. Westcott Co. spotted him around 11 p.m. ET.It's the same boatthat pulled aworker from the water who fell offthe Ambassador Bridge in 2023 and survived.

In a statement, the Westcott says deckhand James Sharp spotted a man swimming inside a life ring that had been thrown by someone on the shore in Windsor.

"The Westcott manoeuvred alongside where James and Captain Neil Schultheiss lifted the man onto the deck of the mail boat," it stated.

According to the crew, the swimmer seemed disoriented and said he was an American from Florida trying to get back into the U.S.

He was transferred to a Detroit fireboat and it was said he did not have any physical injuries.

Windsor's harbour master said they think the man entered the water near the big Canadian flag at the riverfront.

Peter Berry saidif the Westcott didn't arrive on scene when it did, the swimmer wouldn't have made it.

"The river is very, very dangerous and doesn't very often give back people alive," he said.

"It most commonly will take them. This gentleman had not the Westcott come alongside and bring them on board [he] most certainly would have died with the current."

Berry said thatwithin "two minutes" of the man being pulled out of the water, a ship came over to the location where he was swimming.

"Most certainly, not being able to see the darkness for that captain, being able to avoid that person in the water ...it's truly that person's lucky day that the Westcott was again there to save somebody."

According to Berry, they're still unaware of how the swimmer arrived in Canada in the first place, what his intentions wereand why he decided to swim across the border instead of "getting a cab" or another alternative.

"It is fairly common you see every couple of months somebody goes in the river for whatever the reason is to cool off again, psychosis or they're just trying to swim to the United States or vice versa, coming to Canada."