Boaters battled in vain to save a US tourist who drowned while snorkelling off Pompano Beach Club yesterday.

Nurses and dive boat instructors from passing vessels administered CPR to the victim, a 67-year-old guest from the resort, as he lay on a floating dock.

The man, whose name had not been released last night, was rushed ashore but later pronounced dead at the hospital.

The Eco Express tour boat contacted Bermuda Maritime Operations Centre to report the emergency at 5.06 p.m.

Last night Rowan Hallett, 22, who was on board Eco Express, described the drama that unfolded off the coast of Southampton.

"We were coming back from a dive off the South West Breakers and saw a floating dock with two people waving these kayak paddles.

"Our dive instructor wanted to go over and have a look. He and another dive master got off the boat onto the floating dock.

"I ran the oxygen over to them and the captain of the boat put out a mayday.

"I cleared the area on the boat as we originally thought we were going to take the unconscious man on to our boat, but it didn't look like we could do that safely so we radioed instead."

Ms Hallett said the two people who waved them over were a female friend of the man, who looked to be in her 30s, and a man who saw the incident from his own kayak and went to help.

She and her sister Paige Hallett, 17, got the pair off the floating dock and on to Eco Express.

"We were comforting her (the female friend) and trying to get as much information as possible. It was estimated that when we came across them, he had been unconscious for about 15 minutes," she said.

"She said she had wanted to go out snorkelling and didn't want to go alone.

"He said he would go with her. She got water in her snorkel and tried to get him to turn back but he carried on swimming.

"She said she could see him getting tired and when she finally reached him he was unconscious.

"She tried to get him back to the shore, or to the dock, I'm not sure which. A kayaker saw her and tried to help. She was shocked and crying."

Ms Hallett works for Fantasea, which operates Eco Express, and explained that staff for the company are trained to deal with medical emergencies. As she and her younger sister comforted the uninjured persons, two dive masters from the boat commenced CPR. They were joined around five minutes later by two nurses from the pleasure boat Touchdown which had arrived to assist.

"It was really the best we could do," said Ms Hallett, who was "very impressed" with the calm way that those at the scene went about the rescue. Two Marine Police boats arrived shortly afterwards and the casualty was taken ashore to Robinson's Marina.

According to Police spokesman Dwayne Caines:"Police responded to a report of a drowning that took place a few minutes after 5 p.m. in the waters off of Pompano Beach Resort. On arrival, officers were told that there were persons on a floating raft several hundred metres out from the shore with an unresponsive male on the raft.

"The Marine section arrived on the scene and removed the 67-year-old man, a tourist from the USA, from the floating raft and transported him to Robinson's Marina Wharf where first responders transported the man to KEMH via ambulance."

He was pronounced dead at 5:58 p.m.

Mr. Caines said it was understood that the man, his fiancée and a friend had rented a kayak and snorkelling gear from the hotel but he fell into trouble in the choppy surf.

Speaking ahead of news that the man had died, Pompano Beach Club manager Tom Lamb explained that details were unclear, other than that he had been out swimming.

An assistant manager at the club declined to comment later after news came in that the guest had died.

"I'm not at liberty to say anything, all we know is that he was snorkelling," he said, declining to reveal the name of the victim or where he was from. Mr. Caines said no further details would be released by the Police until next of kin have been informed.