(Trinidad Guardian) Five of seven crew members, who were said to be onboard St Vincent and the Grenadines cargo vessel MV Fair Chance when went it overturned in waters just off the Bocas, Trinidad, are still missing.
Up to last evening, members of the T&T Coast Guard had been unsuccessful in their attempts to find the missing five crew members.
Guardian Media understands the two rescued crew members are Vincentians currently working in Trinidad for a local contractor. One of them was identified as Eric Calliste, who is still missing. The rescued crew members received help shortly after the incident, which occurred after 3 pm on Saturday.
Guardian Media was told that the vessel was loaded with steel from the Caricom port in Port-of-Spain and had just departed en route to St Vincent and the Grenadines when the incident happened on Saturday.
A supervisor at the port, who wished to remain anonymous, told Guardian Media that it is believed that the vessel may have been overloaded and added that there was speculation that the vessel’s extra weight was not properly checked by T&T’s Customs and Excise Division’s officers before its departure.
According to a release issued by the T&T Coast Guard (TTCG), at about 3.40 pm the TTCG received a report of an overturned vessel with seven people on board some five nautical miles North of Monos Island.
“The vessel named Fair Chance, which is from St Vincent and the Grenadines, encountered rough north coast seas and subsequently overturned due to a shift of the cargo on board. Two of the seven people on board were rescued by a passing vessel and were handed over to the TTCG and taken to Staubles Bay for medical treatment,” the release stated.
It added that the TTCG has since deployed assets that are currently involved in rescue operations with the Fair Chance vessel.
It was reported by the St Vincent Times that some of the vessel’s crew members were from Union Island, Carriacou and Grenada.
On Saturday night, MP for the Southern Grenadines, Terrance Ollivierre, told the St Vincent Times: “The bottom of the boat is on top of the water, while the top is beneath the water. Two survived; I was told they were sitting on top of the boat. I was advised they were rescued by a powerboat from Trinidad that was making its way down from the Tobago keys to Trinidad. The Coast Guard would have been notified following the rescue of the two crew members”.
The St Vincent Times reported that the captain of the boat is Dexter Chance and that the MV Fair Chance is a St Vincent and the Grenadines-registered vessel.
