…after boat breaks in half

FIVE young Guyanese fishermen who went missing after a storm ripped their boat to pieces sometime on Saturday evening, have been rescued.

The men who have been identified as: Rondell Vanderstoop, 27, the boat captain; his brother, Norris Dundas, 18; Steve Mc Bean and Andrew Beaton, both 22, all residents of Epsom Village, East Berbice Corentyne; and Rodwell Captain aka “Dudu”, 22, of Kiltearn Village, also in East Berbice Corentyne.

Reports are that the young fishermen left shore on Friday and were making their way out to sea, when sometime around 22:00hrs on Saturday night, while in Surinamese waters, tragedy struck.

According to Leroy Vanderstoop, a sibling of Norris and Rondell, he received a call from a close family friend in the wee hours of Sunday morning, informing him that the boat his brother was aboard had sunk and three of the crew members were missing.
“I got a call that a storm passed and broke the boat [ on which] my brother was the captain into pieces and that they only rescued two crew members, Steve and Rodwell, [and] that my two brothers and Andrew were still missing, ” he related.

Continuing, he said, that the same boat that rescued the earlier crew members, returned to the area where, some 35 hours later, the three men who were previously unaccounted for, were found alive on a bank.

Speaking with the Guyana Chronicle Beaton explained that from around 22:00 hrs they swam until around 04:00hrs the next day, before they reached shore and were rescued on Monday morning.

“The whole thing happened so fast, it was like a movie, the boat just loose up when the wave them hit we and everybody went in a different direction. I start swimming till I reach shore like 4’o clock time and I see them other bannas a lil bit after. We wait, wait, until this morning (Monday) for help”.

This publication understands that the men swam for a while but managed to stay afloat by clinging to debris from the wreckage. Miraculously all five of the fishermen are healthy and looking to return home to their loved ones. A relative of one of the men who spoke on conditions of anonymity said when he heard the news he began to panic, as he recalled the deadly piracy attack in April. “When I hear Suriname and boat sink all my thoughts run back to piracy and I started to get a really bad tummy ache, I start praying that them boys okay and I glad we prayers answered.”

With the exception of the captain, Rondell Vanderstoop, who has been at sea for over 11 years, the others are relatively new in the fishing industry.