The Coast Guard has suspended its search for a missing 51-year-old fisherman who is presumed dead after his boat capsized in the waters off Queens on Sunday, killing three of his friends.
The search was ended for Bronx resident Vernon Glasford at 6 p.m. on Monday, with his body still missing. Glasford was on the 30-foot Grady-White boat fishing boat when it began to take on water near Breezy Point near the entrance to the Ambrose Channel around noon Sunday.
“The decision to suspend a search is always difficult,” said Capt. Jonathan Andrechik, the Coast Guard Sector New York commander. “Though our active search has ended, our support and sympathy remain with all those impacted by this tragic incident.”
Six men were on the boat when it unexpectedly capsized off the Rockaways, officials said. Two men survived— Enrique Diaz, 55, and Sewchand Maniram, 62. Three died, including Cecilio Javier Adames, 50, and Glasford was unaccounted for.
Maniram was close with Glasford, his daughter told the Daily News on Tuesday.
“They know each other. [My father is] traumatized because he wants them to find [Glasford],” said Asha Maniram, 42, who added that her father has been released from the hospital and is resting at home.
“He said from what he remembered the boat was taking on water,” said the daughter. “He said he wasn’t sure what happened. I guess sitting there and trying to think of it, your mind is going to play tricks on you.”
But her dad was able to remember some details from the fishermen’s desperate attempts to survive.
“One minute everything was fine and then next minute it was chaos,” Asha Maniram said her father told her. “He said they ended up in the water and they were trying to help each other out.”
“They ended up at the front of the boat,” she added. “It’s something that he is reliving over and over. So I don’t know how he’s processing it in his mind.”
Asha Maniram said her father was “zoned out”, crying and very emotional when she saw him after he was rescued.
“He’s got a few bruises, but he was hypothermic. They were monitoring his heart,” said the daughter. “Other than that he was good.”
“He’s an easygoing guy. Willing to help. Always wanting to be on the water. That’s his therapy, when he’s having a bad day,” she added. “He’s from the Caribbean so the water is his thing.”
The boat, which departed from a dock on Cross Bay Blvd. near 162nd Ave. in Howard Beach, began its trip on the Shellbank Basin, a narrow inlet leading to Jamaica Bay.
Coast Guard crews responding to the capsized boat scoured 842 square miles during a 30-hour search for Glasford, Coast Guard officials said. The search involved vessels of different sizes, helicopters and small planes.
The NYPD, FDNY, and New Jersey State Police assisted the Coast Guard in its search. A Coast Guard boat crew recovered three people from the capsized boat and rushed them to Monmouth Medical Center in Long Branch, N.J., for treatment.
A helicopter rescue crew dispatched from Atlantic City recovered one victim and an NYPD aviation crew found another within a few hours.
Glasford was wearing a gray hoodie, blue jeans and black boots when the boat capsized.
“He went fishing Sunday and he didn’t come home,” said Jenel Bobb, who lives in the same building as her brother in University Heights, the Bronx.
“He didn’t come home. He didn’t call. We called and called and he didn’t pick up,” said Bobb. “It didn’t add up. And then the Coast Guard called.”
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