June 30, 2025 by Hilary Jenison (photos provided by Julie Egan and Kelley Testa)
This spring, Tom Egan and his friend Chris Testa began training for the Cohasset Triathlon. As part of their training routine, they swam in Hingham Harbor near their Crow Point neighborhood.
During an evening training swim on June 9th, Tom realized—devastatingly—that he had lost his wedding ring. He and his wife Julie have been happily married for 28 years. Thankfully, he noticed the ring was missing shortly after it slipped off and remembered he had been swimming near an orange buoy.
From the window of his closet, Tom could see that very buoy—and every morning, it reminded him that his ring was still out there somewhere. He was determined to find it.
Tom made a few solo attempts to locate the ring but had no luck. Still unwilling to give up, he spoke with Chris and with his neighbor Don Brown about the situation. The very next morning, Don somehow managed to track down a metal detector and suggested Tom check out YouTube to learn how to use it. Chris came up with the logistical ideas including how to best get out there and what to wear.
Fueled by hope, and despite the early morning fog, Tom set out this past Sunday for what he considered his final rescue attempt. It was low tide, and he was wearing Chris’ fishing waders while using Kelley Testa’s paddle board to keep from sinking too deeply into the muck. With each step, he sank almost up to his knees into the clay-like harbor floor, relying on the paddle board for balance and to hold his gear.
Once he reached the orange buoy and realized the buoy’s 20-30 foot scope, he wasn’t sure where to begin. He started anyway by sweeping the area with the metal detector, making 8 to 10 passes before hearing the first faint signal. Over the course of an hour or so, he dug 4 to 5 deep scoops into the thick mud with a sand strainer shovel—still no ring.
With his wife, Julie, and Kelley cheering him on, he kept going. He did one more pass with the detector as he approached the buoy again and this time heard a faint, but different, sound. Two scoops yielded only more mud, shells, and worms, but, still hearing a ping, his third scoop filled with a thick clay. This scoop wouldn’t rinse with water so he reached in and cleared the clay with his fingers. Not finding anything at first, he almost moved on, but grabbed the clay at the bottom of the scoop and, to his amazement, he found he was holding a ring.
He quickly rinsed it off, and sure enough, there it was: the inscription on the inside confirmed it was the wedding ring he had worn for nearly three decades. A miracle!
Congratulations to Tom and Julie! We’re inspired by your determination, grit, and hopeful outlook. You never gave up—despite the odds—and this remarkable Hingham Harbor treasure hunt has a very happy ending.
