A 24-year-old Kwebana, Region One man is feared drowned after the wooden boat he and nine other men were in sank amidst rough Essequibo River waters on Saturday.
Fred Crème, a farm hand at a Hamburg Island, Essequibo farm and nine co-workers were tossed overboard as they were making their way home on Saturday afternoon. Nine men were rescued after a passing vessel witnessed the incident and went to their aid. However, Crème could not be located and after hours of searching, his wife and mother now fear the worst.
Police said that at about 3:30 on Saturday afternoon, a wooden balahoo with ten men aboard capsized off the Riverstown Foreshore, Essequibo Coast, due to the rough tide.
The missing man’s wife, Iris Daniels, last evening said that she last saw him on Saturday morning when he left with two men only identified as Papo, the owner of the balahoo and Shabeer another farmer. “He left with them …and then one of them come back and call out and ask me if I see Creamy and I say no. Then later they came back and tell me about the accident and say like Creamy drown because they can’t find he,” she told Stabroek News.
His mother yesterday travelled from Kwebana and said that she is making funeral arrangements for when his body is located as she, too, believes he died.
Stabroek News was told by a relative of one of the rescued men that the boat was laden with farm produce and that due to the weight it was unable to ride the tides. “The boat had plenty weight you know and how it make flat, not like them other boats, when the wave came in he say it hit the boat in the middle and it can’t ride the tide so another one came and sink it…the sea was bad,” the relative said.
The rescued man also recounted his near-death experience to his church congregation yesterday but was too distraught to speak with this newspaper and preferred to “wait until a catch myself `lil more.”
Daniels said that the father of one was from the Kwebana district but settled on the Essequibo Coast about six months now. She said they once lived at Parika but moved to their present address at Adventure also on the Essequibo Coast after he got the job on the farm.
She described him as a very dedicated worker who despite being poor and having only meagre earnings would try his best to ensure the needs of his family were met. As she sobbed over the phone she stated that she was still trying to come to grips with his demise and how she will go on.
The owner of the boat has since offered to help Crème’s family with funeral expenses and has promised that from early this morning a search for the young man would once again resume. (Marcelle Thomas)
