A boat crash survivor who was travelling aboard Ocean Angel has recounted his ordeal before the Commission of Inquiry investigating the fatal collision, describing a loud impact followed by his next memory of opening his eyes underwater.
Marvy Rismay, a heavy equipment operator living in Soufrière, told commissioners he was knocked unconscious and caught himself submerged before he swam to the surface. There he heard people calling for help but struggled to see.
“I just heard a loud impact,” he said. “When I opened my eye, I was underneath the water.”
With his vision blurred, Rismay spotted a white piece of wreckage and swam towards it. Other passengers were already there. As he checked himself for injuries, he felt blood and a wound on his head. Unable to see through one eye, he feared he had lost it.
Rismay said he asked a fellow passenger, whom he identified as Shaka B, to check his eye. However, that passenger was also injured and could not properly assist him. He estimated that they remained on the wreckage for about half an hour before a rescue boat reached them.
The journey had begun after a call from his close friend Tyrone at approximately 9 p.m. Rismay said he went to meet him and was invited to join a boat trip to the Rum Bucket in Castries.
According to his testimony, five people initially boarded Ocean Angel before the vessel collected three women and another man at the Soufrière waterfront, bringing the number aboard to nine.
Tyrone initially operated the boat. After they passed Canaries, Rismay said, the owner, whom he identified as Dylan, asked to take control. He said he heard no explanation for the change.
After the owner took over, Rismay noticed an increase in speed and said the boat began bouncing in the choppy conditions. He qualified his account, saying the vessel was travelling “not too fast” and was not slamming into the water.
He estimated that the impact occurred about 15 minutes after the change of operator.
Rismay told commissioners there was a slight drizzle before the collision. Seated on the left side, on the first bench in front of the operator, he saw nothing ahead before the impact.
He said everyone remained seated after the change of operator, with Tyrone moving to a bench further forward. No one was standing to keep watch ahead.
Questioned about visibility, Rismay said he could not see ahead while the boat was moving. However, he repeatedly said he did not know whether the vessel’s lights were on.
He initially thought Ocean Angel had struck a rock and said he learned only after reaching the hospital that it had collided with another vessel.
Rismay also testified that he received no safety briefing and was not wearing a life jacket. He explained that others boarded without wearing one, and he followed them. Once on the wreckage, the only person he recalled seeing in a life jacket was a passenger he identified as Roxanne.
After the rescue boat arrived, Rismay said he climbed aboard with the other passengers. He recalled a woman from Choiseul being recovered from the water and placed on the rescue vessel. He told commissioners she was dead.
The boat took them to the Canaries jetty, where he waited for an ambulance. He and two women were subsequently transported to Soufriere Hospital.
Rismay said his vision began returning while he was at the hospital, where he received stitches to his face. He also sustained bruises to his feet. Asked about his recovery, he told commissioners he could now see well and had returned to work.
Rismay said he had not given police a statement. He recalled receiving a call, but when he went to the Soufrière police station, the officer he was to meet had already left for Castries. His telephone number was taken for further contact, he said, but he received no subsequent call.
Reflecting on surviving the collision, Rismay told commissioners that spending time with his children now reminded him of how much he could have missed.
