‘Dragged into vortex’
PETER JULIES could feel himself being dragged into the vortex created by an idling propeller as the MFV Lincoln started going under.
He frantically kicked off his boots and swam away as fast as he could.
Julies, who spoke to the Cape Times yesterday after surviving a harrowing ordeal 20 nautical miles south of Hangklip, was one of the fishing trawler’s 21 crew members who abandoned ship on Sunday.
Nine fishermen perished and nine survived. Late last night the search continued for three others lost at sea.
“The weather was extremely turbulent and the boat started taking water on the port side. Soon the boat was leaning completely to the one side and we knew it was time to save ourselves,” Julies said.
“I jumped from starboard side into the freezing water. Soon I could not feel my legs. The rain was pelting and the gale-force wind had no mercy. Fortunately help did not take too long. But it was too late for some of my friends.”
Three of those who died had been good friends and neighbours living in Wellington.
Last night, their families mourned together during a prayer service by candlelight.
Derrick van der Heever, 39, was a man who “did not know how to live on land”. He lived and breathed the ocean, his widow Rosemarie said.
At about 11pm on Sunday night, she was woken by a knock on the door from one of Derrick’s friends, who only had information that something terrible had happened to the Lincoln.
She frantically called the Viking Fishing Company (VFC) office in Cape Town, to no avail.
Yesterday morning, a supervisor told her she needed to go to Cape Town as the news could not be relayed via telephone. “I was told that Derrick died, but it did not feel like he was gone,” Rosemarie said as she stared at the wall, as if she was trying to make sense of it all. Derrick leaves two children, aged 17 and 10, from a previous relationship.
Derrick’s mother, Johanna America, sat wiping away her tears, unable to speak and shaking her head in despair at her home in Wellington yesterday.
Jacobus Juries, 44, also died in the incident on Sunday. His sister,
Lucinda Juries, said: “My brother had the biggest heart.”
Jonathan Diedericks was also one of the men who died.
SA Maritime Safety Authority (Samsa) duty controller Mark Steed said he received the distress call at 6pm on Sunday. Samsa would be proceeding with an investigation into the cause of the incident.
VFC director Rory Williams, the owner of the MFV Lincoln, said: “Our sincere condolences and prayers are with the crew and their families at this sad time.” NSRI spokesperson Craig Lambinon said the search for the three missing men was continuing last night.