Stevedore feared dead in dream job tragedy
Published:Thursday | July 14, 2022 | 12:13 AMCecelia Campbell-Livingston/Gleaner Writer
A year after Clarendon car washer Scot Bamburry longed for a dream job in the shipping industry, family and friends in his home town Wood Hall are fearing the worst after the stevedore fell overboard Tuesday night, disappearing without a trace.
Mortel Pinnock, who owns and operates the car wash where Bamburry's worked, is still trying to come to grips with the reality that he may never see his friend alive again.
“Right now, mi just sit down here inna one corner by miself. Everybody just sad,” he said of the mood of the entire car wash workforce.
Pinnock last saw Bamburry, 39, when he visited the north-central Clarendon district two months ago and played pool with his friends.
He is doubtful about the likelihood of Bamburry's survival, as he had no recollection of him swimming on their many visits to community ponds and rivers.
A graduate of Caribbean Maritime Institute, Bamburry's story, published in The Gleaner's sister tabloid, THE STAR, in May 2021 tugged at the heartstrings of the public as he disclosed his unfulfilled ambitions of becoming a stevedore.
Bamburry, who had earned a diploma in international shipping and logistics in 2008, was on top of the world after landing a job in the shipping industry.
“I am overwhelmed. I now start to see where my life is heading. It's like I was blind and now I can see,” he told THE STAR.
Kingston Wharves confirmed, in a statement issued Wednesday afternoon, that Bamburry fell overboard while performing stevedoring duties. He was employed to Newport Stevedoring Services Limited, a subsidiary of Kingston Wharves Limited.
The incident occurred at 10:05 p.m. Tuesday while a vessel was docked at Berth 8.
Kingston Wharves said that rescue protocols were immediately activated.
The cruel turn of events has delivered a punishing blow to one of his most ardent cheerleaders, his aunt, Veronica Rodney.
She is especially devastated because Bamburry had disclosed to her his dreams of uplifting other community youth who “were struggling like himself”.
“I was so happy for him when he got that job because I knew he had the potential,” she told The Gleaner on Wednesday.
Recalling their last meaningful conversation when she and Bamburry were in Wood Hall in February, Rodney said she beamed as he told her how much he enjoyed his job.
“I got up from my side of the table and I hugged him and I said, 'You know what? This has been a long time coming, you have waited so long, struggled so hard for this job,” she said.