Latest update February 6th, 2025 7:27 AM
Company may not compensate seaman who lost legs – family
Russell Cornelius and his infant son
Relatives of Russell Cornelius, the seaman who lost both legs in a recent trawler mishap, yesterday alleged that officials from Noble House Seafoods Limited have indicated that they may not compensate Cornelius for his injuries.
The relatives said that the officials made this disclosure during a meeting with them at the company’s East Bank Demerara head office on January 27.
“We were told that he may not be compensated. They also told us that they (the officials) had contacted their lawyers and said that we should contact our lawyers,” one relative said.
The relative also said that they have received suggestions that the boat captain should be the one to pay compensation, since the Noble House trawler, World friend 307, was contracted out to the captain at the time.
However, he showed Kaieteur News a job letter, signed by Noble House Personnel Officer Piercy Corlette, which stated that Cornelius has been employed by the fishing company for over three years.
Cornelius, who has four children, including a one-year-old son, was discharged from hospital last Sunday, but says he is still in severe pain.
The relatives said that shortly after Cornelius was hospitalised, the trawler captain had reassured them that the fishing company would give the injured man ‘something’ in the form of financial compensation.
The captain, they alleged, had also said that he would give Cornelius ‘something’.
Asked what the company has in store for the injured seaman, Nobel House Personnel Manager Piercy Corlette declined comment when Kaieteur News contacted him yesterday.
He also said that no other official will comment on the issue.
Cornelius, 43, of Grove, East Bank Demerara, had his legs severed on January 18 last when his limbs got entangled in a winch on the World Friend 307, a trawler that is operated by Noble House Seafoods.
At the time, the vessel was some nine miles out in the Atlantic Ocean.
Trawler captain Roy Soknanan and four of his crewmen have all submitted statements about the mishap.
In his statement, Soknanan said that at around 18:30 on January 18 last, he gave instructions to pick up the nets.
He stated that as soon as the winch started and stopped, two crew members ran into the wheelhouse and said that “something wrong with Cornelius.”
Soknanan said he left the wheelhouse and saw the mangled Cornelius on the try net winch.
He assisted in lifting Cornelius into the cabin, where the injured seaman was placed on a mattress. The trawler captain stated that he then wrapped the inured man’s legs and put ice on them.
According to Soknanan, he contacted Noble House Seafoods Limited and the Coast Guard eventually arrived.
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