Bajan fisherman rescued, another dies after 28 days adrift

Anthony’s Brathwaite’s 28-day ordeal at sea keeps replaying itself over and over in his mind. When Searchlight visited the fisherman at the Milton Cato Memorial Hospital on Tuesday, he was reading his Bible.{{more}}

The Barbadian, though thankful that he was rescued after being adrift for three weeks, was mourning the loss of his nephew and friend Peter Collymore, who did not make it through the ordeal.

Holding back tears, Brathwaite recounted that he and Collymore, both of College Savannah in the Parish of St. John, had left Barbados on Monday, May 12th, for six days of fishing on the forty-foot ice boat ‘Highly Delighted’.

They charted a course for just off Tobago, where, according to Brathwaite, they had five successful days of fishing, catching over 20,000 pounds of fish, including dolphin, flying fish and porgy tail.

“On the sixth day (Sunday) everything went dead, the boat won’t start. We had no SOS, no GPS no nothing.”

The men didn’t know what was wrong.

The 56-year-old veteran of the seas said that he and his sea mate tried signaling passing boats and ships, but were unable to get any attention; even with the SOS flag and flares flying.

After fifteen days, Peter, a 42-year-old diabetic began to get weak, but according to Brathwaite, he maintained confidence that they would be rescued.

“Peter had left his medicine at home, and there were certain things on the boat that he couldn’t eat or drink.”

“We had food, but run out of water. There was cream soda syrup on the boat, but he could not drink that.”

Over the course of the next two weeks, the men maintained hope that they would be rescued, but with every passing day, Collymore’s condition worsened.

Then on Monday, June 9th, their luck changed when the men, now just off the coast of Mustique, were encountered by Vincentian fishermen Michael Cupid, of Roseau, and Callistus Williams, of Rockies, aboard the ‘Sparkle’.

The brokenhearted survivor related what happened next.

“At about eight in the morning, I smelled diesel