Coast guards rescue fishermen from sinking boat |12 September 2012

Commander of the SCG vessel Andromache Captain Fernand Laporte told Nation they got an alert from the 15-tonne Marlin II at 3am yesterday to which he and his 17-strong crew team responded by sailing to the location, reaching the leaking boat – which had 500 kilogrammes of fish – at 5.50am.

“On board were fishermen Robert Pascal, Steve Esther and Benjamin Jules,” he said, adding the boat belonged to Amede Esparon.

“We started towing the boat with the men on board but it started sinking. As they tried to transfer to the Andromache we realised one of the men had difficulty swimming so I sent a number of my men to help him out of the water,” said Capt Laporte, who added the men had life buoys but the coastguards also gave them life rings.

He said when the boat nearly went completely under the coastguards pulled it towards their vessel and retrieved their rope, letting the smaller vessel sink.

Asked if they could not tow it despite being slightly beneath the water, he said it was not possible “as it is a big vessel and neither could we take it on board”.

The fishermen were given refreshments on the SCG vessel, dry clothes and warm blankets, said Capt Laporte.

The fishermen told Nation they were glad to be alive and grateful to the SCG for the rescue.
“We have lost all our equipment but at least we are alive. If it were not for the coastguards we would also have lost our lives as the sea was very rough,” they said.