The 67-year-old cook 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 from where it had departed some three hours before en-route to Trinidad and Tobago.
Once again, yesterday, rescuers scoured the areas around the vessel but Fraser is still to be found.
Harbour Master, Volton Skeete, told Stabroek News yesterday that the search for the missing man is still ongoing but they are sure he is not on the vessel.
He said “The vessel is still in the same position and has been marked with lights and buoys so that marine operators can identify it during the night but I can assure you that the missing man is not on it since divers failed to locate him on Saturday.”
He added that the owner, Ramdat Sankar, is currently in discussion with MARAD and the Coast Guard about efforts to salvage Miss Elissa.
“We are looking at the tide to salvage the vessel because during spring tide it is much easier to salvage the vessel since the water is much higher and once it is salvaged we will conduct a thorough inspection in order to look for clues to determine how it capsized,” Skeete stated yesterday.
Skeete said that there is an investigation currently ongoing to determine if any protocols were breached and how the vessel capsized.
When contacted yesterday the man’s wife, Jean Thompson, said that she is not satisfied with rescue efforts by MARAD and the Coast Guard.
She said “Me nah able say nutten now, me fed up, all me throat hoarse and dem nah gimme no satisfaction. Me disgust.”
Thompson told Stabroek News on Saturday that the family searched various parts of the river for her missing husband whom she noted had been working at sea for most of his life. She had said he had been working with the company since November last year.
She had said that Fraser, whom she described as a jovial person left home on Friday around 8 am and told her that he would return home in two weeks. She stated that he would travel with the vessel every month to the neighbouring island. The woman also related that she was not satisfied with the manner in which the rescue efforts were conducted 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 to safety, Fraser returned to a cabin to retrieve his bag along with a mobile phone. And according to GINA in an earlier press release 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 contained 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 said that the authorities appeared ill-prepared to address the situation. MARAD, Director Stephen Thomas told the media then that it was unsafe to continue the search.
Thomas said there were no dedicated divers the organisation could have called upon 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 of its departure point, the vessel overturned as its hapless crew members jumped to safety.
While no explanation was given as regards the cause of the incident, Works Minister Robeson Benn told the media that the vessel’s cargo may have shifted as it entered the Demerara River channel.
