By Prior Beharry
FORTY-THREE-year-old fisherman Clinton Lochan and his brother Dennis are lucky to be alive today after swimming for close to four hours to shore following a pirate attack in the Gulf of Paria on Sunday night.
In an interview with AZP News on Monday, Lochan said they left as usual from King’s Wharf in San Fernando around 4.45 pm on Sunday in the 29-foot pirogue “Zack” and ended up just off La Brea in the Gulf of Paria.
He and Dennis threw their net in the water as usual and around 8.20 pm a boat approached them with one of four men on board asking the depth of the water. Lochan said he thought nothing of it since that was usually how fishermen spoke.
But as the boat with four men approached, another man jumped up from beneath the bow with a gun. He said, “Don’t make a move otherwise allyer dead tonight.” They know saw that the men had on ski masks.
Lochan and his brother were told to jump overboard and were given life jacks which they were told to put on in the water.
This they did, but as the men were leaving they attempted to run over Lochan and his brother in the water. Fortunately, they were able to take off the life jackets and dive under the water so they escaped from being hit by the boat or cut by the propeller of the engine.
Lochan and his brother then swam for close to four hours and arrived at La Brea where they were assisted by president of the La Brea Fisherfolk Association Alvin La Borde.
They were taken to the La Brea Police Station where a WPC made every effort to contact the Coast Guard station at Cedros. The phone number she had for the post was not working.
The WPC got numbers for people including off-duty Coast Guard officers and after getting in touch with an officer at the station, she was told that there were no Coast Guard vessels available.
Lochan then called his wife who left their La Romaine home and their three children to come for him. On Monday as word spread that “Zack” was stolen, a fisherman was told that it was seen in Marabella. So Lochan then went to the Coast Guard post at the San Fernando Yacht Club and told officers that he knew where his boat was and wanted their assistance to go.
Lochan said he was told that they too had no vessel and could not accompany him. He said he had a boat available, but the officers told him that they could only use a Coast Guard vessel.
So Lochan went with another vessel and spotted “Zack” near what is referred to as the Old Dump site.
He said the pirates bored four holes in it and they took about 90 minutes to bring it to the Wharf in San Fernando where it was not onshore.
The 75-horse-power Yahama engine was missing.
