Coastguard officer drowns

RYAN HAMILTON-DAVIS and YVONNE WEBB

A leading seaman drowned yesterday after falling off a boat in Staubles Bay. He has been identified as 37-year-old Deryk Nichols. A release sent to the media from the Coast Guard that investigations into the matter are ongoing, but Newsday was told Nichols was with another Coast Guard sailor and drowned after a vessel they were on capsized at about 9 am.

He and the other man fell off the boat. The other sailor was found within ten minutes but Nichols was under water for about 20 minutes.

When Nichols was taken out of the water he was bleeding from a wound to his head, and was not breathing. He was taken to the St James District Facility where he was pronounced dead on arrival. The second sailor was also hospitalised and was treated for minor injuries.

Meanwhile, the search is continuing for scuba diver Chevonne Bartholomew ten days after he failed to surface during a dive near Gasparee Island, Chaguaramas. Lt Sherron Manswell of the TT Coast Guard said yesterday they are continuing the search and have enlisted the Venezuelan Coast Guard to assist.

“Based on the drift pattern, it would have taken him into Venezuelan waters which is between the most Western tip of Trinidad and the most Eastern tip of Venezuela. Manswell said while after ten days, hope may seem to be fading, they have a team out searching every day, “because he could be clinging to life on a rock somewhere out there.”

He explained Bartholomew, 37, was wearing diving gear when he went to do an underwater inspection of a boat for Trindive Underwater Services. He said such equipment would prevent him from sinking to the bottom of the ocean or allow him to float onto the surface. “So it is kind of floating in the matrix. It is difficult to pin point where the undercurrents might have taken him. Surface current might have been able to identify or been able to see the body if it floated up. But it is more difficult to gauge where he is, so we are using scientific methods to determine that search area.”