Incident Description:
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Date/Time: Early morning (after sleeping overnight at sea)
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Location: Offshore, Shama waters
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Type of Incident: Near collision with ship; loss of belongings
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Vessel Details: Fishing canoe with sail and outboard motor
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People Involved: 2 (fisher and his younger brother), both survived
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Cause/Factors: Shortage of fuel; no lights for visibility at night; large vessel wake
Sequence of Incident
“I once went fishing with my younger brother, and because our catch was poor, we decided to sleep in our canoe until morning. At dawn, we pulled our nets only to realize the weather had turned unfavourable. We hoisted our sail and soon spotted a large ship approaching. Unfortunately, our canoe was low on fuel, and we could not start the outboard motor to move out of its path. As the ship drew nearer, the waves it created violently pushed our canoe away, scattering and destroying our belongings, including all our food and water. The impact even damaged our main sail. Luckily, we carried a spare sail, which we quickly rigged. With it, we managed to drift to a point where our small remaining fuel allowed us to start the motor and return to shore. That day made me reflect deeply, had we not carried a sail, or had the ship struck us directly, we might not have lived to tell the story. The fact that we had no light to make ourselves visible at night only worsened the danger”.
Source: Firsthand account by fisher