SEARCH for the missing crew member Gerald Fraser, called “Chinee” – the cook on the cargo vessel “Mellisa” which overturned in the Demerara River opposite Muneshwer’s Wharf late Friday afternoon — continued Saturday, but yielded nothing. Minister Robeson Benn, back at the Muneshwer’s Wharf Saturday, briefed Fraser’s sorrowing wife, Jean Thompson, and her niece, Sharon Pickett, who turned up at the wharf yesterday hoping and praying for some good word about their loved one.
Minister Benn offered his sympathy to the bereaved relatives, and informed them that the search party had managed to get into the ship yesterday, but had found no trace of the missing man. He said that plans were afoot to have the vessel pulled over to the other side of the channel by 14:00 hrs yesterday.
He said that the possibility should not be ruled out that if the missing man was not trapped in the vessel, he could have been swept away and not be in the vicinity where the search is being conducted.
Asked about the reason for not cutting the hull of the ship, by which means they hoped Fraser might have been able to get out of the vessel, Minister Benn explained to the bereaved women that the Coast Guard did get a response when they tapped the bottom of the vessel.
“Personnel went on board and did what they thought was the required thing. They tapped and heard two, which they thought at that time was a response.  We took it to mean that it was a response and they kept hammering.  We left immediately and came over here, where we got the gas bottles, the cutting torches and welders to go over there.
“While we were there, the Harbour Master and the Director of Maritime Security said that, in fact, it was not a response, because the position from where the sound was heard, because it was where the fuel tanks and the ballast tanks were and the machinery … hence it could  not have been a response,” Minister Benn said.
However, Fraser’s niece Sharon Pickett told the minister she was on another wharf and saw the boat on which her uncle worked going down.  For this reason, she insisted that the boat was overladen. Fraser, who turned 67 last Monday, has a twin sister, Geraldine Fraser, who operates a business in the Stabroek Bazaar.
Weeping, they recalled that on Friday afternoon they were out in the arcade when they heard what they perceived to be an SOS (they saw persons running towards the Stabroek wharf to look out.)
“When he heard that it was a cargo boat, I immediately became weak, because I know that my uncle is working on a cargo boat which was out there earlier in the day,” Sharon related. She said she quickly enquired and a man said that it was the boat “Chinee” working on. The woman quickly alerted her other relatives, and they tried to get on to the wharf to make enquiries, but could not easily get into the compound. They said they eventually caught up with the owner of the boat, Sankar, and asked him where “Chinee”, their uncle, was. His reply was “He dead!”
The women said they could not figure what was happening, because it was not very long after the boat had gone down and no search had yet commenced.

Premonition
Meanwhile, the man’s wife Jean and his sister Geraldine recalled that, around midday, he received a call from his bossman stating that they had to leave later in the afternoon to travel to Trinidad. They said Fraser expressed surprise, knowing that the boat was scheduled to leave Port Georgetown at midnight on Friday. He tried to reason with the Captain that he was not yet prepared to go and had business to attend to before sailing, but the Captain insisted that he should be there to set sail at 17:00 hrs. He hurriedly left, Jean said, without bidding them a proper farewell. In fact he was annoyed, she recalled.
Some of Fraser’s family members said they spent the night on one of the wharves looking, hoping and praying that their loved one would be found. Sharon said that after being told that the search had been called off until the following morning, others turned up at Muneshwer’s wharf around 02:00 hrs and waited until dawn.
They questioned why a diver had not been called in soon after the boat had capsized, and at which time it would have been daylight, rendering the search much easier.
“But, obviously, there are more questions than answers; and it seems we are getting no place,” she said dolefully.
Meanwhile, relatives said they have reliable information that the boat was overladen, and that the captain was cautioned against permitting the men to continue placing additional cargo on the boat.
As for the statement made that her twin brother Gerald Fraser was leaving the boat and turned back for a bag or something, Geraldine stoutly declared, “That is a lie from the pits of hell!”
“My brother would never turn back for a bag. My brother got experience working on sea. He worked on sea for more than 36 years, travelling to Nigeria (and) other parts of Africa; Russia, up in the North Pole – all over he travelled. My brother would not turn back for no bag. He knows the rules of the ship and would never do something like that,” she insisted.