A GROUP of fishermen spent an agonising 16 hours travelling to Port Elizabeth after their trawler was struck by a freak wave at sea – killing one of them and injuring another two.
The 50m Japanese tuna longliner arrived in Port Elizabeth at about 7am on Thursday after landing in difficulty at 3pm the previous day.
The vessel – which is similar to the longliner which ran aground in Clifton, Cape Town, last month – is called the Wakashio Maru 83 and is owned by the Maruwaka Suisan Company in Japan. The Maru is one of a fleet of vessels that operates along the Southern African coastline from their Cape Town offices.
The deceased has been identified as Achmat Hendricks, 19, of Cape Town.
Speaking from Cape Town, his aunt Zaibonesa Carelse said that the family had been devastated after hearing the news.
Carelse said Hendricks – who has two one-year-old children – had been contracted to work on the boat and had only been working for the company for about two months.
“When he got the job they sent him on a training course and then in the last week of May they put him on the vessel,” she said.
“He was very excited and wanted to study to become a maritime chief engineer.”
Hendricks’s uncle, Gasan Carolis, arrived in Port Elizabeth yesterday afternoon to collect his body. Hendricks was buried in Cape Town yesterday in keeping with Muslim religious beliefs.
Gardmed Ambulance owner Dave Gardner said one of the injured men had a laceration on the head and the other had a suspected broken leg and possible spinal injuries.
St Georges Hospital spokesman Natalie Henman said the two men were in a stable condition in the trauma unit .
- Daily Dispatch
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