Corentyne tragedy survivor vows ‘never again’

This time last Saturday, Sherry Haynes was marooned in the Corentyne River desperately clinging to a bucket after seeing her sister and friend die and her nephew disappear.

Sherry Haynes at the funeral of her sister, Sheila Gonsalves on Wednesday.
Sherry Haynes at the funeral of her sister, Sheila Gonsalves on Wednesday.

Thirty-six hours later she washed ashore and has vowed never to try a trip like that again.

Haynes, one of two survivors in the Corentyne boat mishap that claimed six lives, told Stabroek News on Thursday that spending 36 hours out at sea was not easy but she had “passed her test in life with the help of God,” and was “never going back on that water, ever”.

As she recalled all that she had gone through out at sea, she emphasized that she could not swim and knows that God had kept her through it all. “I could not have done it alone,” she stressed.

Haynes, a nurse, of Brooklyn, New York, told this newspaper that every time she felt she was reaching close to shore “a big wave would come in and circle and swirl me out again and I would say, “Father if this is what you want then I would do it again.”

Francis Gonsalves displays the bucket that helped to keep his sister, Sherry Haynes alive and a bag belonging to their sister Sheila Gonsalves.
Francis Gonsalves displays the bucket that helped to keep his sister, Sherry Haynes alive and a bag belonging to their sister Sheila Gonsalves.

She did it several times until she reached the shores of No. 57 Village where she saw cows at first and then someone who gave her water to wash her face and assisted her to contact her relatives.

She said she was just in line with a tug and when she saw the light she was almost sure help was coming her way. But then suddenly the tug turned back and she was left there feeling lost and fearful.

At the time of the mishap, she was returning after visiting relatives in Suriname onboard a Suriname/Guyana ‘backtrack’ boat with her sister, Sheila Gonsalves, her friend, Ena Hope and nephew, Henry Gonsalves.

When this newspaper caught up with her, she had just returned from the seaside with her brother Francis Gonsalves of Holland after scattering the ashes of her sister, Sheila Gonsalves. Sheila, a pensioner, also of Brooklyn, was cremated on Wednesday.

Accompanying them to the shore was her daughter, 18-year-old, Jennifer and Sherry’s friend Roldon Hope, owner of the Reno Hotel, who also lost his wife, Ena Hope.

Francis told this newspaper that when he got the call that Sherry was alive he did not know how to believe it but he hastened to the scene. He said when he saw his sister alive, “a piece of life just came back in my body.”

He said Sherry “burst out of the crowd and came straight to me and said, ‘Brother Francis ‘I’m alive’ and she lifted the bucket and said, ‘this is the bucket that saved me.’”

Haynes said she was fine and she has not sought medical attention. However, she was traumatized by the ordeal, and needed a lot of rest.

Relatives leaving the church on Wednesday with the remains of Sheila Gonsalves.
Relatives leaving the church on Wednesday with the remains of Sheila Gonsalves.

Francis recalled with a smile that after Sheila’s body was found he bought enough cotton to wrap her body, as well as those of Haynes and his nephew Henry while at the mortuary. On Monday morning, he said, he presented Haynes’s piece of cotton to her and told her he wanted her to keep it.

But that would not be her only keepsake as she plans to take the bucket that saved her life, back to New York with her.

Wearing a lifejacket and clutching the bucket with her left hand, Sherry recalled that at night, the waves pushed her to the Suriname end and in the day, she would be back in the Corentyne waters.

The bucket was covered but it carried a “spout which was taking in water” and Sherry removed the cover, making it easier to handle.

She said just after the incident occurred some persons began to panic but she did not do that. “I do not panic,” she said “I always try to stay calm in any situation” and this one was no different.

“But one thing is for sure, I am never going back on that water, ever. I would cross with the ferry [from New Amsterdam to Rosignol] because I have to… but I’m never going back no matter what,” she vowed.

She told this newspaper that she was holding on to Sheila and Ena just after the mishap but Sheila told her she was “swallowing some water and can’t keep up anymore. She asked me to take her bag and just after that she went down.”

Sheila’s bag made it safely to shore with her and everything in it had been intact, except for her money and passport, which apparently got lost after she was rescued.

Sherry related too that she and Ena kept holding on to each other until they reached fishing nets and stayed there for a while but then when she tried to talk to Ena she was not moving.

Hope was sure that his wife had suffered cramps at that stage. He also opined that if Sherry had kept holding on to the fishing seines the fishermen would have found her much earlier.

Still clutching the bucket and Sheila’s bag, Haynes said she continued her struggle against the harsh tides while focusing on her daughter and her determination to survive.

Just after she was rescued, she had related that she had spoken to her nephew, Henry on Saturday night and that she must have dozed off after. When she finally awakened, she was at the shore at Number 57 Village; Henry was nowhere in sight.

But on Thursday, she admitted that she was not sure if she had indeed spoken to Henry or she had been “hallucinating”.

Watching her sister, Sheila and her friend, Ena go down in the water has caused Sherry a lot of pain. She plans to show her gratitude to God for sparing her life by giving to charity.
First survivor

Leslie Austin called ‘Heads’ had swum out to shore to get help after Henry asked him twice. He averaged that he swam for about two and a half miles, passing three channels and sand banks, praying all the way.

According to him, when he hit the first sand bank he felt he had reached the shore and started to walk, but suddenly found himself deep in water again.

Exhausted, and panting for breath, Austin said, he crawled in the muddy areas close to the sand banks. At one stage, he saw a boat flashing its light (apparently from the search team) and he called out but there was no response.

When he finally reached shore, it was at Number 63 Beach. Austin said he was so overjoyed, he somehow found the energy to run until he was able to meet persons who assisted in taking him to the landing to report what happened.
Against trip

Francis and Hope said that they were against the women going on the Suriname trip but the women were determined to do so. According to Francis as they were leaving along with his nephew he asked them three times, “Where you all going; what you going for?”

They responded that they were going to visit relatives and said jokingly “we are not taking you all because you all went to Orealla [Berbice River] and we did not go.”

He said he and Hope did not plan to go with them because they were still tired from the Orealla, trip the day before. He said sadly that Sheila had asked him to bring back cassava bread and cassreep from Orealla but she did not get to enjoy any.

According to Hope, he had planned to take the women to Suriname on Monday but they were not willing to wait that long.

He said he hired the boat, which left at 3:30 pm to bring back only Sherry, Sheila, Ena and Henry but the owner, Roy Ramdass who also perished, took other persons who carried heavy bags.

He lamented that if he had gone with them on Friday that would not have happened. “I would not have allowed them to overload that boat,” he said.

The two men insisted, “What happened boils down to one thing… greed! If the boat didn’t take the other passengers who carried all that weight none of this would have happened.”

Hope resides right in front of the boat landing where they left from and said, “Every time I sit on my veranda (at the back) I would look at the river and regret that I did not go. I lost my wife already and I’m trying to move on. I have to be strong for my two small children… I have to look after them.”

He said his elder daughter, eight-year-old Rolena, understands what happened but the younger girl, two-year-old Tiara keeps saying her mother is on the boat. It is not hard playing Ena’s role in the day, but Hope said at nights the child would wake up and look for her mother.
Eleven passengers

The owner of ‘Aunty Landing,’ Fezal Mursaline said that his captain, Kevin called “Burnham” recognized his (Mursaline’s) relative in the boat and asked her to join his boat. He said shortly after two men who traded iguanas also followed her.

The boat left Suriname with the other survivor, Leslie Austin called “Heads” as the captain but Ramdass, the owner, asked to take over and shortly after disaster struck, Haynes said. Ramdass’s body was picked up on Sunday morning and buried on Monday.

The other two persons who perished were traders; Indranie “Birdlady” Motiram, 49, of Crabwood Creek who was buried on Wednesday and Drupatie Bhagello called Nalini Ganpat, 45, of Hampshire, Corentyne. Ganpat would be laid to rest today.

This newspaper was told that Mursaline’s captain asked Ramdass to share some of his passengers and he refused and the captain left.

Hope said he and Francis were waiting on the landing for the four to return and asked passengers from another boat if they had seen them and they responded, “Yes they are on their way and would get here next half hour.”

When that time elapsed and there was still no sign of them he asked the owners at the landing to go out and search for them but he said they told him not to worry that they would get there shortly.

But as the place got dark their fears that something was amiss was increased and two boats were sent out. Persons who went out to search said they did so with small flashlights.

They said too that the water was extremely rough and the captains said they could not go out farther and only conducted searches in the corner.

They had also said that a tug, which was moored close to the landing, did not go out in search of the bodies because the captain had to seek permission from the boss. But Hope said that the tug did go out eventually.

The search team included relatives and members of the Rampoor/Number 78 Springlands Policing Group and officers from the Springlands Police Station. A member of the policing group told this newspaper “we were searching day and night until the last person was found.”

He said the Coast Guard and the members of the Berbice Anti-Smuggling Squad were not able to go out and search because “they had to get permission from Suriname.”
Lifejackets

Austin had told this newspaper that propeller of the engine became entangled with fishing seines and this caused the boat to capsize.

He said they would normally see the “pins” from the fishing seines floating in the water but on Friday the seines were not visible and became snagged with the propeller. He assumed that the pins must have been about one foot under the water.

He had said that after the boat began to take in water he jumped out to cut the seine but he could not reach a knife that was in the tools’ bucket fast enough.

This has prompted boat owners to issue a call for the fishermen to leave a channel “free for the boats to operate; so we won’t have to worry about not being able to see the seines.” They said that they want this method to be implemented at least from 6 am to 6 pm.

Though the vessel was equipped with enough lifejackets for everyone, Austin, Indranie Motiram and Ramdass were not wearing any at the time of the accident. Austin told this newspaper that he only put on his lifejacket after the accident occurred and while he was in the water.

According to Haynes, Sheila was wearing her lifejacket but was unable to zip it up. Reports are that the jackets were only designed to carry persons weighing about 75 pounds but everyone aboard the boat weighed over 100 pounds.

This newspaper understands that the jackets can only keep persons above the water for a few hours if they are lucky to be rescued within that time. It was also observed that these and similar types of jackets are used in the speedboat services at Demerara and Essequibo.
Bigger boats

A captain told this newspaper that the boats are allowed to carry eight persons but Francis remarked that that should be the case only from Guyana to Suriname.

He said most likely, when the boats are returning from Suriname the traders would have a lot of weight. In that case, he said, the boats should carry fewer passengers. He also suggested that the police should be at the landings to “control how much weight the boats are leaving with.”

He said that the owners cannot have a “two-foot” boat providing services. The man noted that he travelled with the larger speedboats in the Demerara River and called for the boats that ply the Suriname/Guyana route to be of that same size.

Regrettably, he said of the incident, “You can’t turn back the clock but they [authorities/owners] can put preventative measures in place. This is not the first time this is happening but they should have learnt a lesson from it and correct their mistakes.”

Further he said, “The game is over and we lost; the river had the upper hand and became the champion. But how many more lives have to be lost before something is done? What happened is heart-wrenching.”

He was disappointed that the police force said it did not have the authority to do anything about the ‘backtrack’ service. “They can’t say that they don’t have authority; they have to get the authority – something has to be worked out with Suriname.

“The President [Bharrat Jagdeo] should sit with them and present a proposal and look at theirs and then make a genuine one. Suriname cannot say it is their water,” he said. “God gave it to everybody to use. The waterways are supposed to be free – to fish or whatever. They need to divide the water and have a boundary line.”

Further Francis questions, “if Suriname is claiming the river is theirs then why aren’t they regulating it? So many things have to be done to regulate the service as well.”

A similar accident had claimed the lives of two women last year February and the Suriname authorities, which issue licenses for the owners to operate the service, had subsequently put new regulations in place, indicating that failure to comply would result in the operators facing a ban or fine.

According to the new rules, operators are required to work from 7 am to 6 pm. They can only load and offload from one point in Suriname. A passenger pays $1500 to travel either way. All boats must be registered in Suriname and Guyanese operators are only allowed to transport passengers to Nickerie; they cannot solicit passengers coming to Guyana. The same system applies for the Surinamese operators who will only transport passengers to Guyana and then leave. Further, the boats can only carry eight passengers, instead of 15 and they must be equipped with lifejackets.

Hansranie of Annandale, East Coast Demerara and Cheryl Peters of Mocha Arcadia, East Bank Demerara were the two women who perished in the February 2007 incident. They were onboard the boat with nine other persons and no one had been wearing lifejacket at the time.
Back from heaven

Referring to an article in the Guyana Times that listed him as a missing person, Francis told this newspaper too that he had a good laugh when “a lady came up to me while I was on the road and looked straight into my face and said, ‘you’re supposed to be missing.’”

He was not sure what she meant, he said, but then she showed him the newspaper and he responded, “Yea I just came back from the heavens… someone else told me, ‘boy you gon live long’.”

However, while he laughed about it on Thursday, Francis said he was not at all pleased with the article. He said the newspaper got its facts wrong and he was concerned about relatives abroad reading it on the internet and becoming worried unnecessarily.