CG fails as clock ticks for sailors
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he Indian Coast Guard, great in enacting mock rescue exercises for TV cameras, was found woefully wanting in real-life disaster when a marine engineer drowned and five of his mates went missing in the choppy sea after Cyclone Nilam grounded their oil tanker off the Besant Nagar beach here on Wednesday. Worst is feared in the case of the five missing crew, local fishermen said.
Captain Carl Fernandes repeatedly messaged SOS but got little help from the Coast Guard and Navy even as both the lifeboats carrying 22 of his 36 crew capsized. The excuse given by both the premier forces of the seas was that it was not possible to deploy helicopters and boats in the gusty cyclone wind, whereas local fishermen turned heroes venturing out in their fibre boats to rescue the drowning men of MV Pratibha Cauvery in distress.
“But for these fishermen, all the 22 men in the capsized lifeboats would have perished,” said an eyewitness. “Even now, we are so sad that one crew member died and five have gone missing”. The Coast Guard deployed two helicopters and two Dorniers early on Thursday morning but the five missing crew could not be located. Rumours that their bodies were washed ashore near the Adyar creek proved false.
“The Navy and Coast Guard say they don’t have helicopters and boats capable of handling a night rescue operation during cyclonic conditions. Does that mean we must have disasters strike us only during the day under clear skies? How can we trust them if they don’t even make an attempt to save the drowning persons?” asked K. Bharathi, president of South Indian Fishermen Welfare Association.
At sunrise on Thursday, 12 divers of the Indian Navy and Coast Guard climbed aboard the Pratibha Cauvery that had ran aground at the Foreshore Estate near Lighthouse in the city and rescued 15 seamen and brought them safe to the shore on two Chetak helicopters within an hour.“We are delighted to bring them all safely ashore. It was very risky to climb the ship, but we are trained to do it,” said diver Praveen Kumar (27) of the Indian Navy, who had taken part in a similar rescue in Mumbai in 2007. However, for young Sandeep Sangwan (22) and T. M. Himesh (22), this was a first.
The divers had been kept on alert at the Foreshore Estate since 9 pm on Wednesday as there was a possibility of the vessel toppling. However, nothing untoward happened and the seamen, including Captain Carl Fernandes, were safely airlifted to the beach. Captain Fernandes, who reached the shore last, said that there was no electricity in the vessel and so all the seafarers were waiting on the bridge. “We went and knocked at every room to check if anyone was trapped inside. We kept calling out names and we believe that all the seamen have left the ship,” he added.
For the elderly, the grounded ship brought back memories of a similar vessel SS Stematis that had got stuck near Marina beach during the 1962 cyclone
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