By Andrew Carmichael
Some nine days after a Rosignol fisherman went missing after the boat he was working on capsized in the Atlantic Ocean, the search continues for the father of one.
It was on March 16 that a 36-foot wooden boat equipped with a 40hp engine capsized about four miles offshore, in the vicinity of Bath Settlement, West Coast Berbice. Two fishermen were aboard the small vessel. The captain, Oneil Deputron, was rescued while 28-year-old Suraj Daneshwar is still missing. Fishermen and the Coast Guard have since been searching for him.
Police have reported that the two fishermen had left for sea the day before the incident. Family members of the missing man say the men were expected back on Thursday, but Deputron told investigators that they had had a good catch, and were returning one day ahead of schedule when the incident occurred. The boat was reportedly hit by a large wave, and it capsized.
Deputron related that, about 10 to 15 seconds after the boat had capsized, he managed to resurface, and he held on to the boat. Upon looking for Daneshwar, he said, he did not see him. Deputron said the boat began to drift in the ocean with him, until he was rescued by another fishing boat that was heading to shore.
The boat operator who rescued the sunken vessel’s captain recalled the tragedy offshore. According to Shivdat McDonald, the boat captain of the fishing boat which carried out the rescue operation, he saw a flag some distance away in the ocean, and as he was turning his boat into another direction, he realised that someone was waving to him.
“Then I realise them dem boys boat gone down. So, I go to the boat and I throw a rope and give him. When we pull him up, I tell him to go in the cabin and lay down, and he tell me that his ‘boy gone home’. Right away I know what happen, and then I bring him ashore,” McDonald said.
Meanwhile, the search party is expected to search along the foreshore today between D’Edward and Bath Settlement.
The missing fisherman’s sister, Omawattie Daneshwar, has said extensive searching has been done in the Berbice River, with the search party reaching as far as Everton.
Daneshwar had been going to sea as a fisherman for the past five years, and is the father of one.
His mother, Chandrawattie Persaud, remains positive, noting that every time he goes out to sea, he would return.
Meanwhile, local authorities are still searching for three fishermen who went missing after the vessel they were working on capsized in the Atlantic Ocean on March 9.
