-were supposed to be on ‘quick trip’
A three-man fishing crew and their vessel remain missing a week after they ventured out to sea on what was supposed to be a quick trip.
Brothers Jairam Surujpaul, 42 and Jirgodhan Surujpaul, both of Bladen Hall, East Coast Demerara and their cousin, Lochan Teserdeen of Madewini, East Bank Demerara left on July 31 on the fishing vessel, ‘Captain Sunil’. Since then their families have not heard from them and searches in the past few days failed to find any sign.
The men had left on the evening of July 31 and were supposed to return on August 3, said Winston Goriah, the owner of the ‘Captain Sunil’. He said when they did not return he went out with another boat to look for them. He said that the missing crew did not have a radio but had a cellular phone since the vessel was equipped with “fine seines” and usually fished close to the shore.
On Wednesday, on the other vessel, he scoured the area, ran out of fuel, refuelled and returned to search but found nothing, Goriah said. “After we get nothing now with this boat, we start to run the land from Parika to Mahaicony because they really can’t go far with that amount of gasoline”, he said. On Thursday, the matter was reported to the Vigilance Police Station and on Saturday, Goriah said a plane flew from “Berbice to Waini” looking for the vessel.
“All over we search…there is nothing to be seen”, he said adding that the Coast Guard was also notified and searched too. “Nobody see this boat”, said Goriah saying that he found it strange. He pointed out that some debris would have floated up. He said that he had asked the fishermen who usually fished in the area but they said that had not seen anything. “The boat well known”, Goriah pointed out. “None of them nah see this boat so it gat to be something wrong”.
He said that Jirgodhan had taken out the vessel once before. Goriah recalled that he was supposed to attend a relative’s wedding that weekend so had not planned to go fishing but was asked to allow them to take out the vessel and he agreed.
At the Surujpauls home yesterday, relatives said that they had heard nothing since the men had left on the trip. Jairam was a cane-harvester and he had gone on the trip as he waited for the cane to be ready for reaping. It was the first time that the father of four had ventured out on a fishing trip, relatives said. Jirgodhan was a laborer but occasionally worked as a fisherman.He is the father of one and had returned from a fishing trip the previous day, on July 30, relatives said. They said that the brothers had left on the afternoon of July 31 and according to them, were supposed to return the next day.
Meantime, Lochan’s mother, Sahodra Ramdass said that she too has heard nothing from her son, who is a father of three.
This case is reminiscent of another incident, which occurred in 2008. On January 23, 2008, the ‘Palpos III’ and its three-man crew left to go fishing and were expected to return 21 days later. They didn’t. Missing are captain of the `Palpos III’, Mahadeo Ramdeo, 24, of 190 Coldingen Housing Scheme, East Coast Demerara (ECD), Ramnarine Jagmohan, 46, of 356 Craig Public Road, East Bank Demerara and Jason Marshall, 24, of Albouys-town.
The vessel belonged to Pritipaul Singh Investments (PSI). Searches were carried out but nothing was ever found.
A reward had been offered by the company for any information leading to the recovery of the boat and its crew members. To date, they remain missing.
