KOZHIKODE: Agnel V Varkey, 25, believes he is still alive only because of God’s mercy. After jumping into the Arabian Sea from the ill-fated barge off Mumbai coast on May 17, he was praying mostly during his 15-hour ordeal in the sea. A native of Chembanoda, Kozhikode, he was among the 186 people rescued by the Indian Navy after the barge, P-305, was caught in Cyclone Tauktae and sank around 70km off coast.
“I confronted death many times in the rough sea. Though I had reached near the INS’s rescue ship more than six times, huge waves swept me away. I stayed afloat in the rough sea for one entire night and the following morning. I’m alive only because of Jesus who heeded the voice of my prayer all the while I was in the sea,” said Agnel.
The youth, who works as a planning engineer with ONGC, said the group on the barge waited till the last minute for Indian Navy’s rescue team to arrive before jumping into the sea as the barge had almost sunk by then,” he said.
“We saw a few who jumped before us dying in front of us after their life boats broke. Some others lost lives after they hit their heads on the walls of the barge while jumping. Our team head Suresh Krishnan kept motivating us until the last minute and he advised us to jump into the sea before the barge fully sank. The last anchor of the barge too had got detached, he said. He also advised us to swim as a group so that the rescue team could save us easily. Unfortunately, a huge wave took me away from the group soon after I jumped. I tried to rejoin the group or get near the INS ship, but failed every time,” he said.
It was around 5.30pm that Agnel jumped into the sea. He got sight of the INS ship at least three times and called for help but they failed to notice him. He somehow saw off the night and spent the entire night in cold water.
Captain blamed for negligence
“I was exhausted, still I swam towards the INS ship and the Navy team rescued me. I searched for Suresh sir but soon realised that he had left us forever,” he said. Agnel blamed the barge captain’s negligence for the tragedy. “There were three barges. Two of them returned to the shore when they were warned of the impending storm, but P-305 stayed on.
Barge captain might have thought he could manage. But the anchors got detached one after another and the barge began to float around. It hit something and water began to seep in. Initially, we removed water using buckets. Then we noticed that one side was sinking. That was the time people started jumping into the water,” said Agnel, who reached Chembanoda on Saturday morning.