-family believes he was thrown overboard by mutineers
By Shabna Ullah and Sara Bharrat
The battered, decomposed body of the captain of a fishing vessel, Savie II, was found at the Bush Lot, West Berbice foreshore around 9:45 am yesterday after he disappeared on Friday during a fracas at sea.
Relatives of Shankar ‘Coolie’ Kumar, 48, of Uitvlugt, West Coast Demerara who launched a search for the body “from Skeldon to Abary” since Saturday, were at the Fort Wellington Hospital mortuary yesterday shortly after they found it.
They told this newspaper that the body bore a chop on the left leg while the left hand and left leg also appeared to be badly burnt. They believe that the man was thrown overboard alive into the Corentyne waters where they were fishing, after he was attacked.
According to them, one of the sailors, Trevor Williams was badly burnt with hot oil and is currently a patient at the Burn Care Unit of the Georgetown Hospital.
Kumar’s uncle, Ganesh Persaud of Essequibo Coast told Stabroek News that “we suspect mutiny.” The information he received is that a fight reportedly erupted after the attacker wanted the boat to go to Suriname, claiming that “they did not catch enough fish.”
He said the captain refused “so the mutineers decided to strike – he refused to do any work.” After spending 14 days at sea Kumar said he was returning home and this angered the man who “boiled some oil” to which he added pepper sauce and doused Williams and Kumar with it.
The owner of the boat had told relatives that two of the crew members as well as Kumar jumped overboard to avoid being attacked but the relatives are disputing that claim.
Persaud learnt that after the brawl, the man “hijacked” the boat with Williams and two other sailors and took it close to the shore at Number 63 Village. A smaller fishing boat brought them to shore after they related that they were attacked by pirates.
The aggressor was taken to the Number 66 Fish Port Complex where he sold the fish glue from the boat. He reportedly gave a portion of the money to one of the sailors and then “mek he heights [escaped]”, according to relatives.
The two sailors known only as ‘Bruds’ and ‘Docs’ then took the boat to the Meadow Bank wharf with the injured Williams who was taken to the hospital.
In the meantime, the two other sailors who claimed to have jumped overboard and swam safely to shore were placed in the lock-ups at the Springlands Police Station. They were released after the 72-hour period elapsed.
They told police that a man held a knife at them and forced them as well as Kumar to jump. A fishing boat rescued them and took them to the station.
Meantime, Persaud said they are “perturbed that we did not get any help from the police and the coast guard to search for the body.”
However, he is calling for a “full fledged investigation and for the mutineers to be brought to justice. We want the police to open up the file arrest the crew.”
Further, the distressed man said, “We would leave no stone unturned; we want justice to prevail.”
Last trip
Meanwhile, Indra Kumar told Stabroek News from her father’s Uitvlugt home yesterday afternoon that this would’ve been his last trip to sea since his health was not what it used to be and he wanted to spend more time with his family.
The 26-year-old woman, Kumar’s oldest child, supported claims of other relatives that the man was murdered. Her father, she reported, left home on October 27. Since leaving he’d contacted her mother twice via mobile phone.
“He doesn’t always get signal to call home,” Indra said, “but whenever he does he calls home regardless of what time it is…my mother said he’d called home two times since he left for sea but I can’t tell you exactly how long ago was the last call. My mother would know but she’s been in bed since she received the news.”
Indra recalled being at home just after 11pm last Friday when her mother called and said she’d heard something. The woman said she immediately rushed to her parents’ house and shortly after her 22-year-old sister arrived bearing the same news.
“A distant relative called my mother to tell her what they’d heard and someone else called my sister,” Indra said. “We were all worried and started calling around and doing what we could to determine if what we’d heard was true.”
It was Friday night, Indra reported, she first contacted the owner of the vessel her father captained. The man told her that the vessel was at “the foreshore” and proceeded to explain what he’d been told happened aboard it.
Indra said the owner (who she named) reported that her father was one of seven men who were aboard the vessel. One of the crew members, she said she’d learnt from the owner, had demanded that her father charter the vessel to Suriname. When Kumar and the other crew members refused, Indra had learnt from the owner, the rogue crew member went about removing any weapons his colleagues could use to defend themselves.
“The owner tell me that he learn that [rogue crew member named] went and put on a pot of hot oil and put pepper sauce in it,” Indra reported, “and he throw it on this crew member name Trevor Williams.”
Indra insisted that the story told to her by the owner “just doesn’t add up”. The owner further told her that Kumar and four crew members jumped overboard and began swimming towards a buoy some four miles away.
“He [the owner] said that the men told him that during the swim to the floating flag [the buoy] my father told them he couldn’t keep up anymore and they should go ahead and leave him,” the distressed daughter related. “I don’t believe for a second that my father would do that.”
Trevor Williams, according to Indra Kumar, was a patient at the Georgetown Public Hospital Burn Care Unit. The woman said she and relatives have visited him several times in the hope that he could’ve told them what happened to her father but the man refused to speak.
Kumar also leaves to mourn a 9-year-old son and was the sole provider for his family.
Ganesh Persaud (centre), flanked by Kumar’s brothers and others who were part of the search.
