Maritime authorities searched in vain yesterday to locate missing cook Gerald Fraser, who was on board the cargo vessel Miss Elissa, which capsized in the Demerara River on Friday afternoon.
The 67-year-old man was reported missing by his six colleagues, who were rescued soon after the vessel upturned in the river around 5 pm on Friday while returning to the Muneshwer’s Wharf on Water Street where it departed three hours earlier for neighbouring Trinidad and Tobago.
Efforts were being made yesterday to determine whether the vessel could have been tilted back to its conventional position and Transport Minister Robeson Benn told the Government Information Agency (GINA) that search teams scoured the area without much success yesterday.
“Three divers went down into the boat and all they were able to find is the cargo. No other discoveries were made on the boat,” Benn stated. “We have to think that he is out there in the water. The tide could have taken him up the river, on the other side… or, if he came into the channel, he would have been swept out onto the coast…we will have search teams running the areas,” Benn added.
He assured the man’s wife, Jean Thompson, and other relatives that a thorough and formal investigation will be done to ascertain the cause of the incident.
Thompson told Stabroek News yesterday that the family searched various parts of the river yesterday for her husband whom she noted had been working on sea for most of his life. She said he had been working with the company since November last year.
She said her husband, whom she described as a jovial person, “who look good for he age” left home on Friday around 8 am and told her that he would return home in two weeks. She said he would travel with the vessel every month to the neighbouring island. The woman said too that she was not satisfied with the manner in which the rescue efforts were made to save her husband on Friday afternoon. She said the authorities reported that they heard knocking on the hull of the vessel and according to her, additional work could have been done earlier to find the man.
Stabroek News was told that as the vessel tilted over and crew members scampered for safety, Fraser returned to a cabin to retrieve his bag along with a mobile phone. According to GINA, a welding team was dispatched to the area, but it was later determined that it was not Fraser communicating with them, as the area on the vessel was occupied by fuel tanks and machinery.
On Friday evening, the teams on site called off search and rescue efforts close to an hour and half after the boat capsized. This move drew criticisms from persons at the scene who noted that the authorities appeared ill-prepared to address the situation. Maritime Administration Department (MARAD) Director Stephen Thomas told the media that it was unsafe to continue the search.
Thomas said there were no dedicated divers the organisation could have called for assistance.
The 130-foot cargo vessel was transporting coconuts, wallaba poles and rice to the Caribbean island when the incident occurred.
Reports are that at 2.15 pm on Friday the cargo vessel departed the Muneshwer’s Wharf for Trinidad and three hours later, the vessel was seen heading back to shore.
Within minutes and in sight distance of its departure point, the vessel overturned as its hapless crew members jumped to safety. The vessel is owned by Ramdat Sankar of Vergenoegen, East Bank Essequibo.
While no explanation was given as regards the cause of the incident, Benn told the media that the vessel’s cargo may have shifted as it entered the Demerara River channel as it returned to shore.
