An investigation into the mishap on Saturday which resulted in a speedboat sinking in the Essequibo River has revealed that the bow was punctured during the transfer of passengers from another boat.
The mishap which did not claim any life was said to have occurred at about 14:30 hrs on the Essequibo River in the vicinity of Leguan Island.
Stabroek News yesterday spoke to John Flores, a Captain attached to the Maritime Administration Department (MARAD), who said that an investigation was carried out based on the facts of the incident only, while an inspection was also done and the bow of the boat was observed to have had a slight split.
“Well we investigated it but it was based on the facts that we went on… apparently the boats were banging up together… so it got punctured somewhere along the line while it was helping the other boat… that is what the captain reported to me… we had an inspection afterwards and we saw that the bow like it split.”
The captain informed that the first boat which was en route to Supenaam and experienced an engine failure has been identified as ‘Asahiron’, while the other boat that sank was ‘King Tide’.
“…The ‘Asahiron’ had eighteen passengers… the King Tide that went to the rescue had an additional four persons, it had the captain, the bowman and two other persons… they took up all the passengers and when they were about to head off they noticed a leak in the boat, the captain then drive the boat into some bushes and that’s how the people were able to get out.”
Stabroek News had previously spoken with Chris Gopaul, a Guyanese comedian who was also a passenger on the sunken boat, where he had related the entire ordeal.
Gopaul had stated that the boat which initially left Parika, had started to experience engine failure after five minutes. As such, the captain of the boat called for assistance and the passengers were subsequently transferred to King Tide.
He further explained, “The guy that came, came with about four more passengers… so when we get on [the boat], we realised it hardly had any other seat available… almost everybody was wearing a 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 jackets when they boarded the second vessel, but that didn’t happen, couple persons didn’t get…”
When the passengers were in the second boat, Gopaul said that some minutes after moving off, the boat started to leak and eventually started to take in water more than usual. The captain of the boat, who had assessed the outcome earlier, then diverted into the nearby mangroves and stopped.
As a result, persons rushed to exit the boat in order to grab onto the various stems of the bushes since the boat had started to leak profusely.
“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 the 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.”
Gopaul noted that due to the cooperation of everyone in the boat, they had managed to overcome the disastrous event.
“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,” exclaimed Gopaul.
Another passenger, Shemar Garraway, who was in the boat, and who is a member of the Guyana Defence Force (GDF), was on Monday commended for his act of bravery by his organisation, since he was the one who had managed to keep the baby safe in his arms during the event.
A release from the Force said that the Chief of Staff (Ag), Colonel Omar Khan met with Lance Corporal Garraway and he thanked him for his selfless action which displayed both his humanitarian and military attributes.
The 23-year-old Garraway, who is also the father of a one-year-old girl, explained that he was forced to move to the boat’s bow as it manoeuvred toward the bush, where they were able to wait until they were rescued.
The rank said that he quickly assessed the situation and recognised that the baby would be most at risk. As a result, he disembarked and sought to provide safety and care for the infant.
“I know I had to help the baby, as, with any emergency, babies and young children are a priority. So Mr. (Michael) Ignatius (another passenger) took the baby first as the mother cried out for help. I told him I would go into the tree so I could be comfortable to hold the baby properly. I then collected him while his mother got help from others with her other child”, he said
