Floating debris, familiar cargo, bore witness to the increasing likelihood that there were was no more to be found of the 39 Jamaicans who had gone missing on the fishing boat, Snowboy.

Published July 6, 1963

'SNOWBOY' BELIEVED LOST

• Boat finds table, plane spots flotsam, bamboo, debris in pedro cays area

• No trace of 40 men aboard

• Rescue-search craft due at banks today

THE M.V. JAMAICA, Harbour Master’s buoy tender, sailed from Kingston Harbour at 2 o’clock on the afternoon of July 5, 1963, to investigate reports of the sighting off Pedro Cays of furniture, debris and equipment which could have come from the fishing boat SNOWBOY, which has been missing since Tuesday with forty men, all but one of them Jamaicans, onboard. The JAMAICA is due to reach the scene of the ‘floating debris this, morning.

Throughout the day planes from the U.S. Coast Guard in Florida and the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, continued the search for the missing boat.

In the morning the harbour master, Captain S. H. Wiliers reported that he had received a radio message from the fishing boat Marsutana stating that a table believed to be from the missing boat had been sighted 21 miles from Northeast Cay in the Pedro Cays. As a result of the radio message the Harbour Master’s buoy tender was dispatched to the area and is expected to reach the Pedro Cay t around 5:00 a.m. today.

A Coast Guard plane also reported yesterday afternoon that it had spotted wood and bamboo floating in the sea about ten miles southeast of Portland Rock, about 20 miles off Pedro Cays.

It is known that the Snowboy carried 50 lengths of bamboo, 50 rolls of wire and 15 dozen sticks with which to make fish pots.

The JAMAICA has also been alerted to investigate the report from the U.S. Coast Guard plane and the result of the investigation should be known during this morning.

On July 5 an American press report quoted a United States Navy as saying that the 63-foot vessel, missing for three days, had radioed its position to the Atlantic Fleet Headquarters in Norfolk, Virginia.

Confusion

Later in the afternoon, another report from Washington stated that a Coast Guard officer said that the report, that the ship has been located was in error and resulted from confusion with another ship which has been found.

The report further stated that the Navy, describing the Snowboy as a small Colombian refrigerator ship overdue on a Caribbean trip, had reported the finding of the vessel.

The Snowboy, a former U.S. Air Sea Rescue boat is owned by Mr Bob Brayman who is resident in Miami, Florida. The boat, chartered by Mr Byron Hill, Jamaican fisherman of St. Elizabeth, left the Zero Processing Wharf in West Kingston at around 6:00 a.m. Monday and should have arrived at the Pedro Cays around 2:00 a.m. Tuesday.

Skipper of the missing boating is Captain Lewis Tole, a native of Hobert, Tasmania who has been resident in Jamaica for the past eleven years. He is married and the father of two children.

Among the thirty-nine Jamaicans abroad the missing fishing boat are Byron Hill’s two sons, Messrs. Kern and Trueman Hill and his brother Mr John Hill.

Trueman who was 18 figured in a sea drama in September 1962 when he and two other Jamaican fishermen went missing during a trip off the Pedro Cays. The Canoe, in which they were fishing, ran out of fuel during bad weather and drifted 125 miles southwest of Kingston. They were picked up by the U.S. destroyer Borie and taken to Kingston.

35 OF THOSE ON THE BOAT

The names of 35 of the 40 men missing on the fishing boat “Snowboy” were obtained. In addition to these, there are five spear fishermen on board.

Those who are known to be onboard are:

L. G. TOLE, an Australian who is captain of the boat.

JOHN HILL, checker of 20 Third Street, Greenwich Town.

SAM-LEE, Engineer, Montego Bay

SELVYN BRISSETT, Cook, Bluefields, Westmoreland

SIMEON REID, Seaman, Bluefields, Westmoreland

JOE RICHARDSON, 4 Brown’s Lane, Kingston 13

A man known as FRANKIE, of 20 Third Street, Greenwich Town

KERN HILL, age 17, of 18 First Street, Greenwich Town.

TRUEMAN HILL, 18, of 18 FIRST STREET, Greenwich Town

ASHLEY FORBES, 18, of 18 FIRST STREET, Greenwich Town

SAMUEL JAMES, Treasure Beach, ST. Elizabeth

AUBREY CROWE, Treasure Beach, ST. Elizabeth

OLIVER MOXAN, Treasure Beach, ST. Elizabeth

VERNAL MOXAN, Treasure Beach, ST. Elizabeth

CLEVE GORDON, Treasure Beach, ST. Elizabeth

EROOL WHITTAKER, Treasure Beach, ST. Elizabeth

ALDON HILL, Treasure Beach, ST. Elizabeth

HARVEY EBANKS, Flagaman, St. Elizabeth

SAMON BROWN, Port Antonio, Portland

HERBERT DAWSON, Port Antonio, Portland

CLIFTON PARCHMENT, 24 Sixth Street, Denham Town, Kingston

SIDNEY CLARKE, Olympia Way, Kingston

LYNVAL BECKFORD, Oxford Street, Kingston

HENRY DOWNEIR, Jones Town, Kingston

A man called CRANE, of Kingston Pen

TERRENCE EBANKS, of Chisholm Avenue, Kingston

LENNARD WRIGHT, Foreshore Road Kingston

A man called JUVENILE, of Bluefields, Westmoreland

FRANK ALE, of Rocky Point, Clarendon

VICTOR LYONS, Oxford Street, Kingston

A man called MCLEAN, Oxford Street, Kingston

MANOLA MYERS, Treasure Beach, ST. Elizabeth

JOHN GORDONS, Treasure Beach, ST. Elizabeth

SAMUEL JAMES, Treasure Beach, ST. Elizabeth

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