KINGSTOWN – Three fishermen, missing at sea since May 24, have been rescued and are now in Puerto Rico, the radio service of the state-owned National Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) reported yesterday.
The station quoted the parliamentary representative for the West Kingstown constituency, Rene Baptiste, as saying that one of the men had contacted the local coast guard from Puerto Rico.
She quoted the men as saying that their boat ran out of gas and they had drifted for ten days before being rescued.
The coast guard is now making arrangements to return the men to St Vincent.
The men, Mark Denny, 47, Amron Thomas-Simonette, 22, and Walter “Colonel” Lynch, 41, went missing on Fisherman’s Day. Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves said that the local coast guard, with assistance from its counterparts in Trinidad and Tobago and the French island of Martinique, had joined the search.
The three left Rose Place, a fishing community in the western part of the capital in a 25-foot vessel, Jah Love, as part of the competition for the annual celebrations.
They were due to return by mid-afternoon and a search by a local aircraft failed to locate them.
Relatives of the missing men had said the boat was equipped with life jackets, flares and other safety devices as well as food. (CMC)
