…when the Chrisann-V sank off Moruca
AS the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC) continues to search for missing crew members of the Chrisann-V that sank in the Atlantic Wednesday night,
two of the five rescued survivors on Friday recounted their ordeal in which they were mistaken for pirates before they were rescued. The teenaged survivors, Subhash Kristen, 18, of Meadow Bank, and Chris Narine, 18, of Canal Number Two Polder, West Bank Demerara, said they acted quickly when the tug went down off the Moruca River, and managed to scramble on to the barge it was towing.
Kristen said they waved at passing boats for help, but many perhaps thought they were pirates and passed them by.
Eventually a fishing boat picked them up at around 16:00hrs on Thursday and took them to the Pomeroon.
On Wednesday night the pump on the tug malfunctioned
and would not start. Around 22:00hrs the barge struck the tug and tore the side.
Kristen told reporters that the tug began taking in water rapidly, and the captain, realising nothing could be done, told them to abandon the vessel.
They jumped into the Atlantic and managed to scramble on to the barge.
The barge, with an excavator and other mining equipment, was being towed to the Pomeroon up to yesterday afternoon.
Kirtsen said that as he got on the barge, he saw some crew members holding on to a life ring as they drifted away.
Still missing are Elbert Jack, Julian Garraway, John van Sluytman, and a man known only as Speedy.
The five rescued are two men called “Rasta”, who are miners, another unnamed man, Chris Narine, and Subhash Kristen, the engineer, both first timers at sea but Kristen has a year experience as an engineer.
Minister Robeson Benn yesterday was updated as to the search and rescue efforts of MRCC in which two planes went in the area where the vessel reportedly sank.
Benn was also on one of those flights yesterday afternoon, he told the meeting at the MRCC at the Maritime Administration Department, Stabroek, Georgetown. Family members of one of the missing men were at the meeting and they broke down in tears.
Minister Benn noted that there were not enough life jackets on the tug and he urged the rescued teenagers to make sure that they wear these safety devices whenever they go to sea.