Wind runs ship aground

The six seamen onboard the MV Stingray got the ride of their life of Saturday night, during the passage of Hurricane Tomas.{{more}}

At about 6:00 p.m. on Saturday, the vessel, which had been anchored in Kingstown Harbour, was propelled through the surging seas, all along the southern coastline of mainland St. Vincent, by Tomas’s winds, until it came to rest on the reef, off the Brighton coast.

Lieutenant Deon Henry of the St. Vincent and the Grenadines Coast Guard told Searchlight that the boat had lost both its anchors and its engine had failed. Henry and other officers of the Coast Guard were on hand at the Brighton Salt Pond beach on Sunday, to lend assistance to the vessel and crew.

Henry told SEARCHLIGHT that the Coast Guard was on standby to deliver a salvage pump and rope to try to float the boat when the seas calmed down.

Up to midday on Sunday, October 31, when Searchlight left the scene, the six crew members were still on board the vessel. Three men in a small speed boat were seen trying to row towards the Stingray to lend assistance to the crew. The three eventually made it alongside the vessel, after being repeatedly pushed back to shore by the large waves and the tide.