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Tragedy at sea: Skipper survives to tell tale
Leelasena Wanigabadu makes a point. Pic by Roshan Dilip Kumara
It was a routine day at sea for Leelasena Wanigabadu (59) as skipper of the fishing trawler ‘Sagara Putha-3’.
He and his crew were on their third day into a 15-day-long fishing stint after taking off from the Galle fishing harbour.
Skipper Wanigabadu, with around 40 years of experience as a fisherman and five crew members were off Pothuvil when the sea turned rough.
“It was nothing unusual and we decided to anchor our 40-foot trawler mid-sea. It was around midday. Three of the crew and I decided to play a game of cards as we usually do during such situations. The other two decided to get some sleep as they had kept night watch,” he said.
“We were just into the fourth round of our card game when we heard a loud bang and felt a jolt. Water started filling into the trawler. I jumped out and began to swim.
At a distance I noticed a large ship passing by and knew that we had been hit by the ship,” Mr. Wanigabadu the only survivor of the tragedy told the Sunday Times.
“I managed to grab on to a plastic floater used to keep our nets floating. Our trawler had capsised by now. The next best thing I could do was to crawl onto the overturned trawler”, he said.
Mr Wanigabadu looked around to see whether any of his crew had excaped, but there was no sighting of them.
“I thought they must have got entangled in the nets and were unable to swim out. That proved to be correct as the Navy later salvaged the bodies,” the skipper recalled.
“As I waited I noticed two fishing vessels at a distance and tried to attract their attention. One of the trawlers saw me and I was rescued. They were fishermen from Beruwala heading to deep sea,” he said.
He was able to pass on a message to the trawler owner from Galle that he was safe, but the fate of the others were not known.
“The government should have a system to track down the ship involved in the accident. This would help to avert such incidents,” he said.
The owner of the vessal Premasiri Jayaweera, from Dodanduwa Galle said that he was getting regular communication from the vessel until January 31, when he got a message from the Hikkaduwa, fisheries harbour that his trawler had met with an accident.
“I informed the authorities and the Navy to try and help and rescue the missing crew members. I was surprised to learn that an international ship was involved in the accident. They have sophisticated equipment that picks up vessels and boats in the vicinity,” he said.
He said the Navy responded by sending two Dvoras from Trincomalee, but they were unable to find the bodies. Then a second Naval vessel was dispatched from the Galle harbour along with a fishing trawler.
Navy divers were able to retrieve the bodies and hand them over to the families. The victims were Shantha Kumara (from Galgamuwa), H.R.B.Kaldera (Ja-Ela), Kumara Harendra (Kahawa), M. Ananda (Ratgama) and Namal Ranjith (Boosa)
The family members and fisheries organisations have asked authorities to find out who were responsible for the accident and demand compensation.
But, the Fisheries Ministry and Naval authorities said it was difficult to track down the vessel.Fisheries Ministry Assistant Director of the Vessel Monitoring section A.L. Tilakaratne told the Sunday Times that they would have been able to track down the vessel only if the fishermen had noted down the name of the ship or the exact time of the incident.
“We cannot blame the international vessel. The local vessel should have had at least one crew member in the ‘wheel room’ to monitor the movements of other ships or boats, after they anchored,” he said.
He said the location of the accident, as claimed by the fishermen, was a busy shipping lane and therefore it would be difficult to get accurate details to find out who was responsible for the accident.
Mr Tilakaratne said whenever they held meetings with fishermen they would educate them on how to act during an emergency. “In this case they should have been flying a blue and white flag when they decided to anchor.
Meanwhile the Fisheries Ministry said it had sought the assistance of a reputed diving company to help fishermen in times of distress at sea.
Masterdivers Company Chief Executive Officer Ariyaseela Wickremanayake told the Sunday Times that his company had volunteered to assist fishermen in trouble.
“We have decided to keep a life boat ready round the clock to help fishermen. We will also offer medical assistance if required too,” he said.
Mr. Wickremanayake said one of the drawbacks of local fishermen was that though they have many years of work experience, they lacked technical knowledge to deal with emergency situations.
He said the ship involved in the accident would probably have had equipment to monitor the surroundings but the crew would not have been on alert to prevent the accident. “They should also take the blame for the accident’,” he said.
Galle Additional Magistrate Kesara Samaradivakara ordered an inquiry into the accident on February 25.
(Additional reporting by Sumathipala Diayagahage )