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…survivor of fishing boat mishap recounts ordeal
By Clifford Stanley
“God was with me! The Father was with me.”
This was the only way fisherman Esmond Duke could explain his rescue in the Atlantic in Ocean after nearly eleven hours of clinging to the bow of his semi-submerged fishing boat off the Coast of Belladrum West Coast Berbice on Monday February 8th last.
He was the sole survivor on a two man fishing vessel which floundered in the Atlantic Ocean in eighteen feet of water off the coast of Belladrum Village West Coast Berbice on February 8th last.
Duke of Catherine Village Mahaicony said Saturday last “From where I was halfway overboard in the Ocean I could see courida trees on the shore . I could see fishing boats some distance away but all too far away for me to swim. I knew I couldn’t make it. The half submerged boat was my only hope. I know too that at any one time that boat could go down and that would be it for me (the end of me) he told Village Voice last weekend.
“ I kept praying and shouting for help. I held on to the bow of that boat for my dear life.”
He said that at one point when his body was becoming numb with the cold from the Atlantic, and racked with cramps he felt an urge to let go; be done with it. But it was if he heard God talking to him “no boy keep holding on don’t let go. Keep holding on. Keep holding on. Once there is life there is hope.”
The hours of his ordeal were interspersed with bouts of grief for his buddy friend Lloyd John aka Ruthy who he had seen holding on to a jar snatched from the semi-submerged boat,with him rising and falling with the waves and drifting further and further away and finally disappearing from view.
“I cant stop crying for Ruthy. There was nothing I could do to save him , nothing without risking my own life,” he said.
“I kept shouting for him to come back to the boat. But he kept holding onto the jar with both hands. He couldn’t swim unless he let that go. Maybe he thought that the boat would go down and holding onto the jar was the better thing to do. I don’t know. While I clinging to the bow, I see Ruthy drifting further and further away until I couldn’t see him no more.”
Recounting the day’s tragic events, Duke told Village Voice that himself and John had been working together in the fishing boat for the past three months catching fishing off the Atlantic Coast mainly banga mary and trout.
They set out on their routine trip early Monday morning February 8th .
Shortly after they departed for their fishing ground John dived into the Cabin for a nap.
He said: “I was driving. We were about half way to the fishing ground when something tell me to look down to the floor of the boat. And that is when I realize that the boat was taking in water”
“I shout out to Ruthy . I tell him to get a jersey, get a rag, get something from the Cabin to cork the hole in the boat. And to hurry.”
John he said, had been sleeping and had had woken up suddenly and by the time he could catch himself fully, the water in the boat was too much and it started sinking.
Then a swell came and the 40HP engine cut off and the boat started going lower and lower in the water..”
“The water was too much. I saw Ruthy grab a jar and hold on to it just before a swell come and knock he overboard.
“I shuffle up to the front of the boat . I hug the bow and I start shouting to John to get back on the boat and come to the bow with me. But he had already started drifting away. I shouted to him to swim back. But I guess he couldn’t swim because he had both hands wrapped around the jar.” Duke said with a sob.
After John disappeared from sight, his personal ordeal began.
He clung to the bow of the semi-submerged boat for a while but realized that it could go down any minute.
“So I start studying. I know I had to find another means of staying afloat.”
The fishing nets were buoyed by floats and were floating near the boat.
He gave it a quick thought and then decided to wrap himself up with these nets so that the buoys could help him to stay afloat.
He did so.
The boat had floundered at 6AM.
The hours began slipping away. Seven AM. Eight AM. Nine AM.
The fishing boats were still there. He could still see the coastline. He tried shouting for help again with hopes that somehow somebody might hear him.
“I shout and cried shout and cried. I turned hoarse but nobody could hear me.”
One PM, Two PM three PM : the evening hours started setting in and he began to realize if darkness fell then “that was it.”
Then as luck would have it (was it luck or Gods work?) around 4.30PM, he saw a large fishing boat moving some distance away, about a mile away, not in his direction but parallel to the coast.
Duke said he knew that he couldn’t survive the night. It was now or never.
“I say a prayer. I call on Father God for strength then I loose the bow and floating with the help of the buoys from the fishing nets I start swimming in the direction of the big boat.”
“I saw the men on the big boat at work throwing the seines overboard. I shouted but they couldn’t hear me. They busy doing their work. I shout again. I swim. The rockings in the water wasn’t easy. Was up, then down. Up then down. Up then down. One minute I see the boat, The next minute it gone from sight. I swim . I get tired I couldn’t fight the Ocean. I rest. I swim again. Then I realize I getting closer.
“I continue to shout for help.”
He said was about a hundred yards away from the big fishing boat when a man working on it saw him in the water.
“One man see me. That man take one look at me and then he dashed back into the boat and then I see all the other men on the boat run out onto the deck.”
The men quickly threw a rope out to him. He held on to it and was pulled to safety.
“On the boat, I tell them boys you all saved my life . Thank you. Thank you Thank you.”
His rescuers subsequently transferred him to a smaller vessel which took him to the Abary fishing outpost and deposited him safely on land.
Duke has since cooperated with the Police investigating the tragedy and was eventually released.
While saved though he continues to mourn the fate of his partner 48 year old Lloyd John.
Lloyd John has not been seen since he was separated from the boat on February 8th last.
He is feared dead
Duke said “Me and Ruthy were good. No disagreements. All cooperation and so on.”
He said that the Sunday night, the night before he and Ruthy had each downed a beer or two together at a popular night spot in the village , talked a bit and then he had left early in the evening to prepare for the next day.
While talking to Village Voice Saturday last, he said he was beginning to realize that John may no longer be alive.
He hoped that even if John is dead that his remains could be found and given a decent burial.
In conclusion, Duke said: “You know I am sixty one years old. I live good with everybody. Never war with nobody. Never give the Police any trouble. I guess the Father god didn’t want me just yet. When I was thinking that I was alone in that Ocean. I know that he was with me. The father was with me. The Father sent that boat. That is the only way I can see it,” he said. .
Will Duke go fishing in the Atlantic again?
He said: “I ent sure. Right now I ent too sure. I still shaken up. Ruthy look like he gone. Cant forget that experience easy. But maybe just maybe I will go out again. But not very soon.”(END).