Four West Coast Berbice fishermen narrowly escaped death after the boat they were travelling in sank in the Atlantic Ocean during rough sea conditions on Tuesday afternoon, leaving them stranded in the water for hours before they were rescued.
One of the survivors, 56-year-old Kusiram Jagmohan of Lot 12 D’ Edward Village, recalled that he and three other crew members, including the captain, had departed the Rosignol Fishing Port for sea on Friday, May 15, aboard a 45-foot drift seine vessel and were preparing to return home after five days at sea when the incident occurred.
According to the fisherman, the crew was in the process of hauling in their fishing seine when they noticed the vessel taking in water. He explained that the men bailed water from the boat and resumed pulling the seine.
“When me go to the prow the whole prow full with water, then me go and tell one of them boys that this boat going down, he turn back and watch the whole boat take off with water full up with water.
The boat tilt on one side, not taking steer anymore. We call on the captain and tell him the boat going down now,” Jagmohan recounted.
After the vessel quickly became unstable, he said the crew was forced to cut away the seine as water continued rushing into the boat.
“Just as we cut off the seine so, the boat already three-quarter full. The captain said hurry put on your life jacket and stand by with them jar, so we start to tie up all them water jar and so on.
The water was rough and when it run it lashing into the boat. By time that we trying to lift out the box with the fish, the boat go down,” he explained.
Before the vessel completely submerged, the captain managed to contact the Guyana Defence Force Coast Guard for help.
Jagmohan said the four men spent approximately three hours in the water before being rescued through a coordinated operation involving the Coast Guard, volunteers, and Chairman of the Rosignol Fishermen’s Co-op Society Ltd, Hardat Malchan, along with Commander David Shamsudeen and ranks of the Coast Guard.
“He barely get a call, and he tell them hurry come for us, the boat going down. All thing gone, phone, I.D. card, all clothes, all thing,” Jagmohan said.
Jagmohan, who has spent between 30 and 40 years working at sea, said this was the first time he had ever experienced such an ordeal.
