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NARRAGANSETT, R.I. -- The Coast Guard says it will continue searching until Tuesday morning for three University of Rhode Island students who were reported missing while boating on Narragansett Bay.
NBC 10's Dylan Dreyer reported that a 13-foot aluminum rowboat was found floating in the West Passage, about 1,200 yards from shore. The Coast Guard said an oar, a ball cap and a sandal also were recovered.
The missing students were identified as Daniel Donahue, 20, of Glocester; Geoffrey Wilkes, 18, of Harmony; and Fandia Shloul, 21, of Pawtucket. Donahue and Wilkes are students in the environmental and life sciences program. Shloul is a nursing student.
The three set out in a rowboat before dawn Monday. The bay was shrouded in dense fog at the time. A Coast Guard news release said the people might have taken a rowboat from the pier where the University of Rhode Island docks its research vessel Endeavor.
Coast Guard Cmdr. Peter Martin said boats would remain on the water overnight to continue the search as long as it is safe. He said fog would prevent searching from aircraft. Other agencies may continue searching beyond Tuesday morning, Martin said.
Martin said the water temperature is about 40 degrees, which is a cause for concern.
"We have not had any overly cause for optimism at this point," Martin told reporters. "It's very limited survival estimates in that type of water."
Martin said he did not know if any of the students had any particular boating expertise. Authorities do not believe the boaters were wearing life jackets.
University President Robert Carothers said a security guard at the bay campus heard voices off shore at about 2:30 a.m., but he didn't see anyone because of the fog. About 90 minutes later, the security guard heard what sounded like a moan from the direction of Dutch Island.
The security guard called the Coast Guard, which began a search at about 5 a.m. for the three people.
Carothers cautioned that it's not certain that whoever was in the boat fell into the water. Searchers also checked Dutch Island by foot and by air for any sign of the boaters.
"We're all hoping that whoever is involved in this is on the shore," Carothers said.
The students attended a small, off-campus party early Monday morning at Bonnet Shores, a waterfront neighborhood just south of the URI Narragansett Bay Campus, Narragansett Police Chief David Smith said.
"Detectives have spoken to people at the house ... We're trying to chase down a bunch of different avenues to where they might be right now," Deputy Chief Joseph Little said Monday morning.
Authorities said friends of the missing students discouraged them from launching the boat.
Coast Guard boats from Stations Castle Hill and Point Judith and a helicopter crew from Air Station Cape Cod searched the waters from the West Passage of Narragansett Bay to Wickford.
The state Department of Environmental Management, the Narragansett Police Department and a Rhode Island State Police dive team assisted in the search effort.
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