-tales of horror recounted
“This boat… like a wave come and this boat mek a one jam and right away that is how the water rush in.”
Those were the words of Elena Moonsammy as she recounted the moments before the MV Barima sank, forcing passengers into the water in a desperate struggle for survival.
At the time she could not account for seven of her relatives, the youngest being two-years-old.
Speaking through tears to Kiskadee Watch, Moonsammy said the tragedy unfolded within seconds.
She said that the rear of the vessel was heavily packed with boxes and that she was travelling with seven children, including a two-year-old.
“And the box cover down because it is two times this boat tek in with water and it cover we down. I try to grabble me baby but the box (fling) he out me hand and all what I had to do was fight fuh me life,” she said, weeping.
Moonsammy said she lost sight of the other children as the cargo shifted.
“I try to make way for them,” she said, shaking her head. “I barely mek it out,” she said weeping.
She recalled clinging to a floating box after escaping the vessel and urging another woman who was struggling in the water to hold on as well.
“Is seven a dem I lost, five girls and two boys,” she said.
Her account was one of several given by survivors who described spending hours in the water after the vessel sank and watching relatives disappear beneath the waves, while anxious families continued to wait for news of loved ones who remain missing.
Moonsammy’s account also gave credence to the view that the ferry was heavily laden and shifting cargo could have enabled the capsizing.
Eighteen-year-old Wayne Kitson told Kiskadee Watch he spent approximately six hours in the water after the vessel went down, surviving from about 10 pm until he was rescued around 4 am.
Kitson, whose left arm was in a sling after he said his shoulder was dislocated during the ordeal, recalled that he had been asleep when the vessel suddenly listed.
“All I know is when I been sleeping this boat cant (tilt)… and it just lean over,” he said, gesturing with his free hand to demonstrate the movement.
He said he had been travelling with his partner and their young daughter, both of whom remained unaccounted for when he spoke to this publication.
“It was me and me girl and me daughter and all two a dem gone, drown…” he said, struggling to hold back tears.
The passengers who were sleeping were apparently not wearing life jackets.
Another survivor, who identified herself only as Adreiena, said she was asleep on a mattress with her children when she heard frantic warnings that the vessel was sinking.
“I hear the captain say the boat going down,” she recalled.
She said passengers near the canteen had reported water entering the vessel and said there was no pump available to remove it.
“Dem ain’t get a pump or nothing to pull the water. All the water go in the engine,” she said.
According to Adreiena, the vessel’s engine had stopped twice before departure at about 5 pm. She further alleged that members of the crew had been drinking alcohol and playing music before the incident.
She had been travelling with three of her children. While her two older children survived, her six-year-old son, Adnas Williams, remains missing.
Businessman Donald Modeste also questioned the vessel’s condition and said that it had been overloaded with cargo.
“Top, middle and bottom was rammed with stocks and water get in the hatch and sink the boat. The boat end up turning,” he told Kiskadee Watch.
He further said that the vessel encountered difficulties even before departing.
According to Modeste, the ferry became stuck on a sandbank while at the wharf and it took almost an hour to free it.
“And when they get it off, it start working on one engine and they still go with it. They stop and had the mechanic man working on the engine and still forcing the boat to go,” he said.
Modeste said he was resting in a hammock when he suddenly felt the vessel roll.
He said he waited until it was back on its bottom and “plunged but the wave send me back in the boat”. The man said he climbed to the top and he was pushed back into the boat by the wave. “Two time I get throw back,” he said.
“I just start relax and start paddling myself. I paddle and I come up and I see the light and I say, ‘Praise Father,'” he recounted.
He said he initially clung to two pieces of vinyl before later finding a gas cylinder to help keep himself afloat.
“I hug the two together and then about …nine other people come around and hold on, even a girl with she baby,” he said.
Modeste said he lost approximately $1.8 million worth of goods that he had been transporting to Port Kaituma for his business.
He displayed $100,000 which he said had been provided by the authorities following the disaster but said he had been informed that no additional compensation would be provided for the goods he had lost.
“I got to go back to Port Kaituma empty-handed,” he said. He added that he was going to buy footwear.
Outside the Umana Yana in Georgetown, relatives of missing passengers continued to await updates.
Nicole Fernandes said she learnt only after the incident that her brother, Quincy Smart, a security guard employed by the Transport and Harbours Department, had been aboard the vessel.
“Mommy tell me, ‘You know Quincy on the boat?’ I say, ‘You lie.’ Right away I get cold,” she said.
Fernandes said she had since been told that her brother had not yet been found but remained hopeful after hearing that Transport and Harbours personnel had joined the search.
“They say unto now they ain’t find he, but they said some Transport people turn around and gone to help, so I don’t know if he is in the midst,” she said.
Also waiting for news was Alan John, whose nephew, Shawn John, had travelled on the ferry to return to Port Kaituma.
John said his nephew had decided to make the trip after learning that the government’s $100,000 cash grant distribution would begin in the community on Monday.
“So as he get the boat now he say, ‘Man, I hear this thing sharing out Monday, so I guh jump on the boat and go and collect me thing and come back.’ We never know me boy would end up on the boat,” John said.
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