Boat Tragedy: They Rescued 16 People

'When we reached only a small portion of the boat was above water and people were desperately clinging on to it.'

Iqbal Gothekar, who hails from Mandangad in Ratnagiri district, has been working as a boatman since 2004, along with Masoom Harchilkar, Irfan Narwankar and Irshad Mirkar. They were the first to reach the capsizing boat Neel Kamal and rescue 16 people.

Gothekar -- and his crew, though they spoke in Hindi for the video, are more comfortable speaking Marathi -- tells Prasanna D Zore/Rediff.com about the events of the evening of December 18. Video: Afsar Dayatar/Rediff.com.

'A man wearing a life jacket waving frantically at us'

We -- Iqbal Gothekar the master of the ship; Masoom Harchilkar (Dapoli); Irfan Narwankar (Guhagar); Irshad Mirkar (Mandangad) -- left for Elephanta at around 11.45 am that day and reached there at 1 pm.

After spending two hours resting time there (it is mandatory that all boats ferrying people between the Gateway of India and Elephanta Caves rest for two hours before they start their return journey), we left Elephanta at around 3.30 pm and some half an hour later we saw this accident.

When we reached near Jetty No 5 near Butcher's Island we saw a man wearing a life jacket waving frantically at us. We immediately increased our boat's speed and went towards him. It must have been around 4-4.05 pm.

'Only a small portion of the boat was above the water'

When we reached tonly a small portion of the boat was above water and people were desperately clinging on to it and the boat was capsizing (Neel Kamal). We helped all those in water to come on board our boat (Manek 1) and rescued all those who were wearing life jackets.

We lifted all those in the water from the gangway because it becomes a bit easier to do so. Two of us lifted those from the water and made them come aboard our boat.

'He whistled loudly to call for more help'

At the same time we saw a (fishing) trawler in the vicinity so one of Irfan whistled loudly and waved a cloth to indicate that there was an accident and we needed help. We also called a speed boat (heading towards Alibaug).

We were the first people to reach the boat. There was nobody near that boat. Then the JNPT boat (Read how Arif Bamne aboard JNPT boat Poorva rescued 20, 25 people; see video here -- external link) came and as our boat was full to capacity (there were already 32 on board who were being ferried from Elephanta towards the Gateway and 16 who we rescued) we decided to take the rescued passengers towards the Gateway at gate No. 1. Then the police took those rescued to hospitals for medical help.

The passengers who we were ferrying also helped us bring some people on board our boat.

The fishing trawler also helped rescue people who were in the water. One of the passengers was asking us to help rescue his grandmother. We told him that there were other boats and they would have rescued her. We asked them to maintain calm and spoke to them to give them confidence so that they feel composed.

'Passengers must wear life jackets'

Once those 16 were on board we gave them water and helped them relax.

In all the years that I have been ferrying passengers on this route I have never seen such a fatal accident.

We would only say that all those enjoying these boat rides should compulsorily wear life jackets.