Fifty-seven year old Christopher Williams who had been drifting at sea for 19 hours after the vessel, LADY SHANEEZA, which he was on sunk was among seven crew members rescued on Boxing Day by the Guyana Defence Force Coast Guard.
A statement from the GDF said Coast Guard ranks conducted a Search and Rescue Operation at approximately 1130 hours on Monday, in response to a distress signal detected by the Timehri control tower, off the Essequibo Coast.
According to a Facebook post by the GDF, a response vessel and team were immediately deployed to the location and six crew members of the vessel were pulled to safety from a life raft. After being rescued, the crew members informed the coast guard their colleague, Williams, was drifting at sea. An aerial search by Roraima Airways was also launched to complement the Coast Guard and hours after, the GDF said that the ratings rescued the other crew member about 4 nautical miles off the mouth of the Pomeroon River.
Williams was transported by ambulance to the Charity Hospital for medical attention and checks by this newspaper revealed that he was transferred to the Suddie Public Hospital for advance medical attention. Later checks indicated that he took self-discharged from the facility.
Recounting the events, the crew members said that they were on their way back from Trinidad after departing Guyana earlier this month. On their return voyage their vessel encountered extremely bad weather and sank. National Security Advisor and Principal of Roraima Airways, Captain Gerry Gouveia, in a Facebook post said the crew encountered difficulties when the boat began to sink around 20.30 hours on Christmas night.
“The crew all outfitted themselves with life jackets and jumped into the raging ocean and scrambled into the life rafts which was deployed as the vessel was sinking. The crew then recognized that one of their crew members was missing. They floated and floated and drifted all night on the raging ocean and blistering rain showers. They looked and looked and with heavy hearts could not find their colleague,” he related.
According to Gouveia’s, the crew that was together was stumbled upon by a fishing vessel at 1130 am Boxing Day and the coast guard was immediately summoned. “…While other Coast Guard vessels began wide sweeping search patterns trying to locate the lone missing crew member… They then called out to Roraima Airways for air support and immediately we dispatched an aircraft under the command of Captain Gerry Gouveia Jr and Captain Leary Barclay, they were joined by the Commanding Officer of the Coast Guard and his team,” the senior Gouveia related.
He stated that the Coast Guards at sea also encountered difficult and challenging weather, “The weather was severe and rough but together the Coast Guard vessels and the Roraima planes combed the ocean looking and looking… [They] began tightening the search pattern… the lone crew member was spotted by the ranks in the CG Vessels. After 20 hours of drifting aimlessly in the wide expanse of the Atlantic Ocean he was hauled aboard the Guyana Defence Force Coast Guard vessel and brought to safety,” Gouveia detailed in his post.
