At the Vasai home of Rishikesh Sakpal (27), his father Raju (55), mother Rajashree (53) and wife Ruchita (26), are scanning news channels for some information about him. Rishikesh is one of the Indian sailors missing since the Kerch Strait mishap in which two ships — Candy and Maestro — caught fire in Russian waters on Monday.
Rishikesh’s employer, Nimbus Maritime Services Private Limited, has been sending hourly updates to the family on the status of the search launched by local authorities. The 10 pm news bulletin confirmed what they knew already – the search was called off for the day due to poor light.
The only son of Raju, a tuition teacher, and Rajashree, a homemaker, Rishikesh joined Nimbus four years ago after clearing Merchant Navy entrance exams. He currently works as a bosun on the Candy and left home three months ago on a ninth-month trip. The 27-year-old married months before his current assignment. The family last spoke to him on Sunday, when he was two days away from making port.
A science graduate, Rishikesh had studied at D S High School in Sion and Bhonsala Military School in Nashik. “He always wanted become a sailor,” his father said. “We haven’t been able to sleep in three days,” Raju added.
The two ships carrying crew members from India, Turkey and Libya caught fire Monday while fuel was being transferred from one vessel to another. The mishap killed at least 12 seamen.
Indian authorities have said six sailors have been killed, four have been rescued and six are still missing. The Ministry of External Affairs has identified the deceased as Pinal Kumar Bharatbhai Tandel, Vikram Singh, Sarvanan Nagarjan, Vishal Dod, Raja Debnarayan Panigrahi and Karankumar Haribhai Tandel. The missing Indian seamen have been identified as Siddharth Meher, Neeraj Singh, Sebastian Britto Breezlin Sahayaraj, Rushikesh, Akshay Baban Jadhav and Anandasekar Avinash.
Twenty-three-year-old Akshay, who hails from Kolhapur in Maharashtra, was to return home next week as his yearlong contract with Nimbus was to end on Friday.
“We all spoke to him on video call Monday morning. He was on watch duty. He asked me what I had made for breakfast and was happy when I showed him the pohe I had prepared,” said his mother Sharada.
While his mother and brother Rahul wait at Akshay’s village Bhadale near Warananagar for news of him, his father Baban Jadhav is in Mumbai to get information from the Nimbus office.
An employee at Warana Milk Federation, Baban said: “He was to come home next week after a year. I just want to see his face.”
Akshay completed a certificate course in maritime services from Chennai after passing Class XII in science stream.
Akshay’s friend Gaurav Patil said, “Recently, on a video call, he showed his ship and explained his work. On Sunday, some of us friends spoke on a conference call. We all hope he comes back safe.”
The father of another missing sailor, Siddharth Meher (24), on Thursday wrote to the External Affairs Ministry, seeking help. “I have sent a mail to Ministry of External Affairs besides the Moscow Embassy. I have also spoken to authorities of Nimbus Maritime,” Siddharth’s father Satyanaryana said.
The sailor, who hails from Odisha, is the only son of Satyanaryana Meher, regional manager of Paradip Phosphate Limited and Geetanjali Meher.
The Indian shipping authorities said on Thursday that they were working on the documentation of the deceased, as the Russian agencies wanted to conduct postmortem examination of the bodies. The authorities added that the Russian Maritime Agency and Maritime Rescue and Coordination Centre Novorossiysh were finding it difficult to locate the missing, as due to the explosion, Candy — carrying liquified natural gas (LNG) — has got half submerged in the sea from one side.
“The authorities are trying to ascertain whether the missing persons are in the submerged part of the vessel,” said an official.
Indian authorities said that sending rescue ships from India wasn’t feasible as it would have taken more than 20 days to reach the accident spot.
(With PTI inputs)
