A fisherman is missing and feared dead while another sustained burns after the unregistered trawler they were in caught fire and burned in Surinamese waters on Saturday night.
Missing is Ravi Shankar Ragoonauth, 39, of De Williem, West Coast Demerara. Another crewmember, Rameshdatt Narine called ‘Bharrat’ is hospitalized in Suriname with burns, reports said. The third crewmember, Abdool Sharif Khan is also hospitalized with minor burns while the captain of the vessel, Ramlall Ramjattan too sustained minor burns but was not hospitalized, relatives said.
The boat left these shores two Sundays ago. Ravi’s father, Ragoonauth said he learnt of the incident when he received calls early Sunday from persons asking about his son. He said that at first, they did not tell him what happened until one said that the boat that Ravi was working in had caught fire and he was burnt. He said that the incident occurred around 10 pm on Saturday but he did not know what caused the fire.
Ragoonauth said that he subsequently contacted the owner of the vessel who told him conflicting stories. “He seh he ain’t know how the boat catch fire,” Ragoonauth recalled. He said the owner related that the captain told him that all of the crew had jumped out together. Ragoonauth said he was told that Ravi was in the engine room when the fire started.
However, he said, he was later told that Narine said he had gone to the engine room to warn Ravi of the fire. “He seh he bin ah go save Ravi in the engine room… when he go down there, is there the fire catch he… He got burn from he head to he toe,” Ragoonauth said. Narine reportedly had to jump through a wall of fire after the flames covered the door through which he had entered to escape. The boat subsequently sank.
Narine’s relatives did not want to speak when contacted yesterday. His wife and daughter left for Suriname early yesterday morning.
Ragoonauth said some nearby fishermen picked up Narine and Khan while another vessel picked up Ramjattan. The Surinamese Coast Guard was also at the scene. They were taken to the Suriname mainland where Narine and Khan were taken to a hospital. Ragoonauth said that the boat’s owner, after already telling him that the four crewmembers had jumped together, later said Ravi was in the engine room and was burned to death. “So I ask he if all four jump together, how they can find three and can’t find the next one. So me now want fuh know whe me son deh.”
When this newspaper visited the home of the boat’s owner at De Willem, relatives said that he had left the country and there was no one else who could say anything.
Khan’s wife, Mureen Khan meantime, said she had spoken to her husband earlier, after being told on Sunday that he was dead. She said he told her he was fine. Ramjattan’s wife, Rookmin Seecharran said that she too had spoken to her husband yesterday and at the time, he was about to go to the hospital for treatment for a minor burn.
Meantime, up to yesterday, Ragoonauth said, boats were scouring the area looking for Ravi. The sobbing man said he would not accept his son was dead until he saw the body. He recalled that some years back, his brother and a companion had been missing for over two weeks when the vessel they were in sank and they had concluded death rites, only to see the duo arrive home the next day. “The bone self. Bring am. I want see it”, Ragoonauth said. “Abbe hope up to now that he living,” he added.
He said the vessel was new and Ravi had been working with it for about six months, while he was a fisherman for about 23 years. Ragoonauth said that his son was separated from his wife and was the father of a 13-year-old boy, who lives with him. He had left a week ago to go fishing, he said.
Meantime, this newspaper was told that there is unlikely to be a local investigation by the Fisheries Department into this incident given that the vessel was not registered and the incident occurred outside Guyana’s waters. A statement from the Fisheries Department of the Ministry of Agriculture said that the trawler did not belong to Guyana’s Fishing Fleet and is not registered with the Fisheries Department. “As such, the vessel was not entitled to engage in any fishing activities within Guyana and is not recognised as a fishing vessel licensed to fish in Guyana’s Exclusive Economic Zone,” it said.
It is the second vessel to have caught fire in as many months. On June 19, a fishing trawler belonging to Pritipaul Singh Investment exploded off the Waini coast. The vessel was badly damaged. The captain, Delbert Williams is still missing.
Injured in that explosion were Orlon Munroe, 19; Leslie Adams, 22, of Virginia Village, Cane Grove, Mahaica; George Fitzpatrick, 40 of West Ruimveldt and Elvis Todd, who escaped with minor injuries. They were rescued by another vessel dozens of miles off the North West coast and were later transferred to another vessel owned by the company they work for before arriving in Georgetown. Relatives of the men had said that the vessel in question had been “a trouble vessel”, since according to them they were told that after the crew departed the McDoom, East Bank Demerara base of the company they were forced to return after the vessel broke down. They said the injured Fitzpatrick related that he and the captain along with Munroe were “fixing a belt” in the engine room when there was a loud explosion.
Investigations into this explosion continue, the ministry said yesterday. “The Ministry of Public Works and Communication which is tasked with ensuring the seaworthiness of all vessels through its Maritime Administration has launched an investigation to determine the cause of the incident and to make recommendations to minimize the recurrence of such an incident. Safety inspections are also being conducted on all trawler vessels,” the statement said. It pointed out that the Fisheries Department is represented on both teams which are headed by a representative of the Maritime Administration.
