Stephon Nicholas

To­ba­go Cor­re­spon­dent

One month af­ter his son went miss­ing at sea, boat op­er­a­tor David McLean Snr is be­ing hailed a hero af­ter res­cu­ing four sailors adrift in a pirogue off To­ba­go on Thurs­day.

Ac­cord­ing to re­ports, the ves­sel, which was ap­prox­i­mate­ly 32 kilo­me­tres off­shore, en­coun­tered en­gine prob­lems.

Af­ter re­ceiv­ing an SOS about the men in dis­tress, McLean said he sprang in­to ac­tion and went for fu­el for his boat.

McLean said the co­or­di­nates of the ves­sel helped him lo­cate the men and tow them back to safe wa­ters.

Speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia yes­ter­day, McLean said the in­ci­dent brought back painful mem­o­ries of his own un­suc­cess­ful search­es for his son David McLean Jnr, and his friend Kester Alexan­der. Both men left Scar­bor­ough aboard the Preda­tor ves­sel on a fish­ing trip on Oc­to­ber 9. How­ev­er, nei­ther men nor the ves­sel has been seen since.

McLean said, “Yuh can’t be self­ish in a time like that. Yuh can’t stick. I’m glad I was able to help.”

He said the men were re­lieved and thanked him for his as­sis­tance. One of the sailors, he said, was suf­fer­ing from sea­sick­ness, and was grate­ful to get back on land.

“They were re­al hap­py. Who ain’t gonna be hap­py for that? It come like you save their life.”

He said the men knew who he was and the un­for­tu­nate dis­ap­pear­ance of his son.

“To­day is four weeks; it is a re­al hard thing. But you see when you out there and you drift­ing, it’s a re­al hor­ri­ble feel­ing. Any­body call me, once I ca­pa­ble, I’m go­ing,” he said.

McLean said ma­rine emer­gen­cies de­mand a quick and de­ci­sive re­sponse. He said it was not the first time he had helped ves­sels in dis­tress.

“Once is a sea emer­gency, you have to move very fast, be­cause the sea don’t stand up one place like a lake. The whole sea is mov­ing. When you in a spot and lost, in an hour time you way down the road. You can’t wait; you have to go one time.”