THE body of miner Ivor Haynes was pulled from the Cuyuni Batavia River on Monday morning, a short distance from where he had last been seen going down with the current of the water after the light boat had capsized two days ago.

The body was recovered by family members who had launched a search party for the man after he had gone missing on Saturday afternoon.

Police sources have indicated that neither the boat in which the man had been travelling nor the engine of that boat has been recovered, but the man’s relatives have indicated that they will not be searching for those two items.

The body was first taken to land and then transported to the Bartica Hospital, where police ranks examined it. Shortly after, it was placed into a police boat and transferred to Parika, thence to the Lyken Funeral Parlour.

Police sources confirmed to this publication that a post-mortem would be conducted on the remains tomorrow, Wednesday.

At approximately 17:30 hrs on Saturday last, the boat with a 15-horse power engine encountered difficulty while approaching a falls. The engine failed and the boat capsized, flinging the man and two others, including the captain, out.

The dead man was, however, more interested in holding onto and saving a metal detector rather than saving himself first. The metal detector, worth more than one million dollars, was being carried away by the current after the boat had capsized. It is used to detect gold in mining areas in a process called prospecting.

Speaking with the Guyana Chronicle at the Bartica Police Station on Sunday morning, captain of the ill-fated boat, Mr Peter Pollard, explained that he, his 16-year-old nephew and the now dead Haynes, who had been identified as a father of two, were returning from the Arawak Creek when the tragedy occurred.

Pollard explained that he was also carrying his father-in-law, but had decided to drop him off first, since he had luggage with him and it was impossible for all four men and the amount of luggage to be carried in the said boat at once.

According to Pollard, who this publication learnt was at the time not operating with a licence to captain the boat, after he had dropped off his father-in-law, he had returned to pick up his nephew and the now dead Haynes, and while approaching the falls, the lone 15-horse power engine that was being used on the boat failed, causing the rough water to capsize it.

As the boat capsized, the 16-year-old nephew plunged into the river and swam to a rock where he sought refuge, and after struggling for some time, he (Pollard) also was able to hold on to one of the slippery rocks, while Haynes choose to go after the metal detector, despite their calls to him to leave the object alone and save himself.

The metal detector that Haynes had been attempting to save, as well as another one being carried by the captain, was later recovered.

Pollard recalled that, after struggling in vain to recover the metal detector, Haynes called out to him to say that he “cannot make it”, and immediately went down.

After remaining on the rocks from late Saturday afternoon to about midnight, the 16-year-old and the captain then decided to swim from island to island for about three hours as they sought to get help. They finally reached a location where they were able to secure the help of a man, and together with a paddle boat they returned to the area in search of the missing man, but came up empty handed. It was then that they recovered the two metal detectors, one worth more than one million dollars and the other just above a quarter million dollars.

The men then picked up Pollard’s father-in-law who had earlier been dropped off with his luggage, took him out of the area and again returned into the area, this time with a 75-horse power engine, as they commenced the massive search for the man.

Pollard told the Guyana Chronicle that he had decided to travel in the area of the falls with a small engine because the water is low, hence he could not use his big engine to traverse the area. He admitted that he does have a larger boat and engine.

The man said that in his twenty-odd years of traversing the Cuyuni River, this is the second time he has been involved in a mishap. He recalled that, some four years ago, he was transporting three Brazilian men when the boat he was piloting capsized; but he said in that incident there were no fatalities.

On Sunday, the police took statements from the 16-year-old lad who was in the boat at the time of the accident.

By Leroy Smith