GDF Essequibo joins search for missing sailors…survivors relate horror story of faulty vessel prone with engine problems

Georgetown: The GDF Essequibo, the Coastguard's flagship vessel, has joined in on the rescue operation which has been launched for the four missing crew members of the Chrisann V, inclusive of its captain whose vessel sank just off the Atlantic Coast in the vicinity of the mouth of the Moruca River on Wednesday evening.
The Essequibo joins a plethora of small planes, maritime vessels and privately operated boats that have been deployed in search of the men.
Some have opined that hopes of finding them alive dwindles with each minute that pass and that the terrain only further complicates the situation.
The missing and now feared dead are Captain John Vansluytman, Julian Garraway, a 16 year-old called ‘Speedy’ as well as Elliot Jack.
Two of the sailors who were rescued were today at the Georgetown Maritime Agency where they related a horror story about a vessel that was not supposed to have been on sea in the first place.
Each sea faring vessel which is registered and operates in Guyana is required to be presented for inspection every 12 months, but according to officials the sunken vessel was not presented for inspection when it was due the last time around and had failed its previous inspection.
One of the rescued sailors, who identified himself as the ship’s engineer, is 18 year-old Subash Kisten who resides at Meadow Bank on the East Bank of Demerara, while the other who is also said to be 18 years old is Chris Narine of Canal No#2, West Bank Demerara.
Narine who was the more vocal of the two in relating his tale to the Maritime Officials at a session presided over by Public Works and Communication, Minister Robeson Benn, said that the vessel had developed an engine problem several hours before the fateful incident.
He said that the vessel left an area called Silver Beach and was heading to Buck Hall to collect the mining equipment which they were to transport to the Northwest.
On the way to Buck Hall, the engine failed, according to Kisten.
This occurred on Monday at about 08:00hrs and lasted for about four hours. When he did eventually get the engine started, the batteries failed, causing a further delay.
According to Kisten, when the vessel left Buck Hall to head into the North West Region and was passing the Hogg Island area, the boat and barge ran aground on a sand bank at about 15:00hrs on Tuesday afternoon and as such they had to wait for several hours before the tide rose again, allowing it to move.
He said that on Wednesday morning when they were able to move the anchor was retrieved and they headed to the Parika area where the vessel again ran aground.
Kisten explained that the journey to the Parika area was to collect an additional pump to be stored on the barge for transport.
The engineer said that at about 17:00hrs that day he went into the engine room and pumped out the water which was accumulating in the vessel but by the time he returned some two hours later to restart the pumping process it failed.
Kisten said that he was unable to get the pump restarted, “and the water just beating in beating in.”
He said that the water started to quickly rise in the hull of the vessel and he managed to erect a makeshift system to get the water out, but this did not hold up for long and eventually the engine started to develop problems.
He said that the situation reached a point where one of the ropes attached to the pontoons snapped and destroyed the sheds on the tug.
The pontoon was subsequently released from the tug as it was damaging the vessel but by this time the tug had started to sink from its stern.
All of the crewmembers were on the vessel at the time and were advised by the captain that there was nothing more that they could do and some of the crew members started to abandon the vessel and seek refuge in the deadly waters.
The lad said that following the incident he did observe for several hours what he believed to be two persons holding onto one of the life rings and at the time they had a torchlight but this light soon disappeared beneath the waters and he has not seen the men since.
By this time all of the crewmembers started to jump over board in an attempt to make it to the pontoon but only the five that were rescued made it to the vessel with the remainder drifting away some clinging to the life rings.
Captain Vanslutyman however decided to take a different course of action when he decided to abandon his vessel.
Rather than seek to secure a life preserver the Captain retrieved a haversack said to contain $3M secured it over his back before making his plunge.
The $3M is said to be payment for transporting the mining equipment to the North West destination.
He has not been seen since.
The young Kisten said that they waited for several hours on the pontoon and watched helplessly as they tried to signal some of the many vessels that passed but none rendered assistance.