MADURAI: R Velmurugan still shudders at the thought of the big banging noise, “Alexander anna” making a last-ditch attempt to steer the boat away from the ship, the heavy wind and rain tossing them around, and then all of them plunging into the water.
The 37-year-old fisherman was among the two survivors of the boat which met with an accident involving a Singapore ship ‘MV APL Le Harve’ in the deep sea off Mangaluru coast on Monday night that left three dead and nine missing.
“The guy driving the boat fell on me. My neck and head hit the steering wheel. I thought it was a nightmare. Seconds later, I realised it was real when I opened my eyes under water with the boat on top of me,” recalled the fisherman from Kannirajapuram village in Ramanathapuram district while speaking to TOI over the phone on Wednesday.
Among the three victims were his friend and boat captain Alexander, 38, his father-in-law Dhason, 65, of Colachel and Manickdhas of Bengal while his relatives Palani, Balamurugan and Manickam are among those missing. Besides Velmurugan, Sunil Dhas of Bengal also managed to survive the tragedy.
They had set off on the deep sea expedition from Beypore on the boat ‘Rabah’ on Sunday night. “Around 10pm, Alexander anna suggested that we head towards the deep sea off Mumbai. We all had dinner and 12 of us were in the boat’s cabin. Alexander handed over the steering wheel to a 27-year-old from Bengal so that he could take a nap before being back at the wheels. It was raining and the wind was heavy. This is all I remember before falling asleep and the crash happened around 11.45pm,” he said. Minutes after being thrown into the sea, Velmurugan managed to reach the surface of in the dark. He swam in the direction of the impact to get help. “The powerful light from a high place made me realise we had hit a ship,” he said. “The ship was searching for survivors and with their light I spotted the mangled remains of our boat and swam towards it. Sunil Dhas who was on the boat already threw a rope to me and dragged me on board,” he said.
The two men ran and rolled all over the top of the boat as they were tossed by the rough sea. The ship then spotted them and the crew lowered a rope for the men to climb aboard by 2 am on Tuesday. “They hit our boat but were compassionate enough to wait, search and rescue us. We were offered a new set of clothes, food. They checked our injuries, gave medicines and sprays for the swollen limbs and a place to sleep. The next morning the Indian Coast Guard (ICG) ship picked us from the Singapore ship around 7 am,” he added.
The ICG ship brought the two survivors and bodies of the three others to Mangalore. After checkup and first aid, Velmurugan was returning from Mangalore to Tamil Nadu on Wednesday night.
The family of Velmurugan, who lost his wife, is happy that he is alive as without him his four children aged eight to thirteen-years-old including a dumb boy would have been orphaned. “Our mother died in an accident three years ago. We are happy that our father is alive. He could not talk much as he had throat pain and is in shock over the deaths he saw. We are waiting for him to return home,” his elder son Thirumaniselvam, 13 said.