The Newfoundland town of Twillingate is mourning the loss of three people, including two young brothers, who perished at sea in a boating accident. A fourth person is still missing.

Resident Casey Pelley said the tragedy has been especially difficult in a community where everyone knows one another. He helped search-and-rescue crews locate the body of one of the brothers -- a 12-year-old boy -- and an adult male.

"It was overwhelming," he told NTV News on Monday. "It was something I don't want to experience again."

The town's mayor, Gordon Noseworthy, said the entire community is in mourning.

"It doesn't matter where you go, the topic is the same," he said. "From church down to restaurants, the topic is the tragedy."

"It's difficult for a lot of people to deal with," he added.

The small boat left Twillingate on Saturday for an impromptu ride on a four-metre outboard boat. But weather took a turn for the worse, with three-metre swells heaving the boat.

Three bodies were found Sunday – the two brothers and a middle-aged man – while the search continues for another man.

Neil Peet, acting superintendent of the Maritime Search and Rescue Joint Co-ordination Centre in St. John's, N.L., told CTV.ca that while conditions were good on Monday, time is a factor.

"Right now we are fully in rescue mode," he said Monday. "But we have very grave concerns with respect to the last remaining individual."

Two Coast Guard vessels, along with a Canadian Forces cormorant helicopter and local boats, were assisting in the search.

Peet said the search area was 12 by 15 nautical miles and conditions "were conducive to a visual search."

NTV's Shane Budgell said the boat trip was meant to be a short one, and that the young boys only joined because of an unfortunate happenstance.

"(The two mean) were fixing the boat's motor and they decided that they were going to go out in the harbour and do a little circling around to try out the motor and make sure everything was fine," he told CTV News Channel.

"The two young kids were on the wharf, they loved to be around the water and they asked if they could go as well, so the two gentlemen said ‘sure,'" he said.

The boys were only 10 and 12. However, the RCMP said the older boy is 13.

Budgell said locals told him the seas were the roughest they had seen in a long time.

With a report by NTV's Carolyn Stokes in Twillingate