While there was panic on the boat which began sinking in the Essequibo River on Saturday with mothers screaming for their children to be saved, the passengers acted responsibly in the hurried evacuation and a collision with Courida bush helped to anchor the craft, according to one of the travellers, Chris Gopaul.
The authorities are expected to launch a probe of this incident which could have resulted in a major tragedy. Two boats encountered problems on the Essequibo River before the passengers made it onto a third vessel which transported them to safety.
Gopaul was among approximately 18 other passengers when the boat began to take in water in the vicinity of Leguan Island on the Essequibo River. The boat eventually ran into the bush alongside the river’s bank where the passengers, all in panic mode hurriedly disembarked, before being rescued. Gopaul spoke to Stabroek News yesterday and related the entire ordeal.
“So we caught a boat from Parika Stelling and on the way across the boat started to experience some engine problems… the captain then called for somebody to come so that we can be transferred on to another vessel and he told the other person how many passengers were on board, including children, so I believed the figure he said was 18…well babies were on board so I’m thinking that that would have probably made up the number.”
Gopaul said that when the other boat arrived, it already had about four passengers. “The guy that came, came with about 4 more passengers…so when we got on [the boat], we realized it hardly had any other seat available…almost everybody was wearing life jacket [on the first boat], [but] there weren’t enough on the second boat for everybody, because about one or two would have assumed that they would’ve gotten a jacket when they boarded the second vessel, but that didn’t happen, couple persons didn’t get…” And when it was thought the situation could not get any worse, disaster struck… the boat began to leak.
According to Gopaul, a number of comedians/performers were in the boat and Lyndon ‘Jumbie’ Jones was sitting right beside him.
“We were sitting in the very first seat of the boat, this would be me and Lyndon Jones, and two guys were on either side of us…so when we started to move Jumbie looking at me and saying, ‘Man Chris, this boat ain’t planing off’, and couple of people in the boat was saying ‘this boat too heavy.’”
He added “Then Jumbie looking at me and telling me, ‘Chris look wuh going on, this boat taking in a lot of water and it coming in like a waterfall…this is too much water coming in this boat, it can’t bail enough.’”
Gopaul said that when he looked around, fright and uneasiness were evident on the other passengers’ faces.
“We look around and saw a couple of people looking a bit uneasy…a couple of minutes later we noticed we were heading straight towards a Courida bush, I was looking at it and then I heard people behind me started to scream…we actually hit probably, the big part of the Courida bush and the bow of the boat actually broke, so when that happened people were screaming and everybody was trying to get out.
“I was all the way in front so I came out and I turned around and we started to pull people out of the boat, there was a girl behind me with a baby so the girl gave me her baby…I saw Kwasi (Edmonson) come out of the boat and I saw he had this little girl in his hand and he threw her up on top the boat… there was this other lady screaming ‘save my baby, save my baby’, and…Michael Ignatius actually went in the water, went to the boat, took the baby out of the boat and gave the baby to a guy sitting on a tree… she (the mother) was sitting in the boat and people were passing her by…she had water all the way up to her bosom already…the water in the river when we stopped was about waist height, so he walked and collect the baby.
“Just a couple of minutes later we saw a couple of boats coming up the river…one guy decided that he would take the entire load…he made sure that all were comfortable… made sure all were wearing their vests and so on, he came with a bigger boat”, he related.
Gopaul said that although it was a life-threatening experience, everyone cooperated fully and did their best in supporting each other.
“As for everybody, as for all the passengers, everybody did well, although they were scared, they acted responsibly, people weren’t looking for luggage, they actually looked at life and other people first… almost everybody on that boat is to be commended.”
He also noted that the captains of the various boats, along with the bowmen, all worked together in making sure that the safety of the passengers was paramount. (Aviso Paul)
