The body of a missing Mon Repos, East Coast Demerara fisherman yesterday washed up on the Eversham, Corentyne foreshore after a boat mishap in the Corentyne River on Sunday.
Dead is Mahendra Jaipaul, 56.
According to information gathered, Jaipaul along with his crewmates left their Mon Repos home on Wednesday and headed out to sea to fish.
The owner of the boat, SK 1798, Totaram Ramdharry, of Corentyne, yesterday told Stabroek News that the captain identified as ‘Joe’ of Mon Repos has been working one of his boats since May.
He said that on Sunday around 3 am he received a distress call informing him that the boat was taking in water
According to him, the captain of the boat told him that the engine had stopped working and the boat was taking in water at a fast rate. He said, he advised his workmen to see what best they could do to deal with the issue and even told them that if they had to throw the seine overboard they should.
The elderly man said he then immediately woke up his son and called up other relatives and workmen to form a crew to head out to sea to offer assistance to the men who were fishing in the Corentyne River just outside of Nickerie, Suriname.
Ramdharry said that his son arrived at the area just around 8 am where they located the icebox and three of the men.
“Them man say them hold on to the icebox but the water was so heavy it start to break away piece by piece.”
Jaipaul, who reportedly did not know to swim, disappeared from the ice box just around 4.30 am.
After the three men were rescued and brought to shore they reported the matter to police stations in Nickerie and Springlands. “They only had on short pants and brief and I give them slippers and buy food for them and then everybody go out back to search”, the boat owner relayed yesterday.
He stressed, that he told his son that they should spare no effort in finding Jaipaul and should not focus on his boat.
During the search for Jaipaul, the boat – worth $11m – was discovered completely destroyed.
“We can’t do nothing, I tell them search for the man because that is material things so fishing work a go, we na get insurance or nothing”, he said.
Meanwhile, Jaipaul’s relatives were in a state of shock yesterday as prior to the discovery of the body they were still hopeful that he would be found alive.
Commander of Region Six, Shivpersaud Bacchus confirmed that a body had washed up on the Eversham Foreshore.
Relatives of Jaipaul said that his brother traveled to Region Six where he positively identified the body.
A post-mortem examination is expected to be carried out on Monday.
