Desperate moment as MV Templar capsizes

“Then I heard Templar shout: “Banange, musitukke tubalancinge elyaato [loosely translated as ‘Please, let us stand up and balance the boat’]”

The urgency in his voice was unmistakable. His voice reached all the sections of the boat. The music or public address system had been switched off by this time. Almost everyone stood up and moved to the right side or starboard side when they heard Templar’s plea, which was more of a command.

I moved to the general area where Andrew Pollando was seated, that is, towards the last table at the back of the boat. Then Pollando said to me: “Now Katanga, first go back to where you were before”. Upon hearing this, I thought we had once again balanced the boat. When I went back to sit at our table, Pollando called again: “Now Katanga, come back this way.”

READ: What happened before the boat capsized

But he sent me back before I reached where he was. I returned to where I had been originally and sat down. It was then that I heard a loud crashing sound coming from the front of the boat.

I later learnt that it was the sound of the water tank that was located on top of the captain’s cabin falling into the lake. Others had thought it was the generator and loud speakers falling to the floor or into the lake. At that point, everyone was quiet.

By this time, the MV Templar was listing severely at about 45 degrees to the portside, and the starboard side now looked much higher.

I later learnt that a few minutes before all this happened, a fisherman, who was sailing by the vessel, noticed that it had taken in a lot of water. Its waterline had been seriously breached.

He also noticed that the boat was tilted at a very dangerous angle. Those who saw the fisherman said he came to the vessel and told some of the revellers that the boat was in a very dangerous condition. He offered to transport some of them to K-Palm Resort in his small boat. It is said about 12 people from MV Templar got into the boat and he took them to K-Palm Resort.

Then I looked at the corridor area on the portside and saw a vast amount of water moving towards me. The entire corridor of the portside of the boat was submerged. I quickly stood up and began to move towards the starboard where Pollando had been. The boat was in such a severe tilt that after taking a couple of steps, I realised that I could not even reach their table.

ALSO READ: Tension as MV Templar suffers engine failure

Water on the boat
The vessel was being overpowered by strong waves. Its tables and the seats were laid on the floor, I think as a safety measure since allowing furniture to shift with the swaying boat can cause grievous injury to people.

I tried to get to the starboard side with the intention of grabbing onto the edge of one of the tables. I stretched out my hand to get a grip on that table but I could not reach it. The table, which had been so close a minute ago, suddenly felt very far away. But I was quite close to it. I held out my hand for someone to grab it and help me get to the table but nobody did.

“Banange munyambe [loosely translated as please, help me!]” I shouted, as I held out my hand. Then a man in a white shirt held out his hand and grabbed me. I pulled myself to the table and got hold of its edge with both hands.

I turned to look at the portside. Nobody had remained there; all the tables on the lower side had been deserted. Everyone had gone to the higher side, the starboard. The portside had become the lower side because the vessel was listing. Despite all the weight of the people on the upper side of the boat, still it could not balance. The water had reached the top of the table on which I had been sitting.

About a quarter of the table was now submerged. Then I realised that the water was rising to where I was. In a few seconds, the water had now covered about half of the table on which we were seated. I stayed holding onto this table for about 30 seconds as the boat listed even more.

Then I heard Templar say: “Eh, Banange! Elyaato ligenda kugwa [loosely translated as ‘my dear, the boat is sinking’!”

Those were the last words I heard from Templar. We stayed in this position of a very steep incline, which I estimate to be 45 degrees, for about 20 extra seconds. Everyone was silent. Then all of a sudden, the boat flipped completely to its side. It flipped to the portside. Everybody screamed. The MV Templar had capsized.

Just before the boat capsized, it seemed to spin around. It appeared to be a spin of about 30 degrees. To this day, I still cannot explain why the boat swung like that. As the boat flipped to a 90-degree angle, I tried to tightly hold onto the edge of the table. But the weight of the many people behind me was too much.

There was screaming behind me as the boat flipped and I felt the passengers fall on me; many of them, with outstretched arms. I tried to hold onto that table but was forced to let go and fell into the water. We all screamed as we fell into the light green waters of Lake Victoria.
It was a moment of total chaos. It is impossible to describe that moment.

“The boat has capsized...” is what kept going through my mind as we hit the water and began to sink. There was a loud splash as we all hit the water at the same time. More than 90 people were tossed into the water simultaneously. There were heaps of people in the water trying to disengage from one another. A couple of people such as Pollando managed to get a good grip of the boat before it capsized. They never fell into the lake.

DON'T MISS:Niyonzima’s warning sign a day before MV Templar boat tragedy

Saved by childhood experience
I had learnt how to swim many years ago in my childhood at Makerere University. This was in the early 1980s. My father, a lecturer, ensured that we always had access to the university swimming pool by promptly paying a membership fee for each of his seven children.

The university pool was about 30 metres long. It had a shallow end and a deep end. The deep end was about 10ft while the shallow end was about 3ft. That is where I learnt how to swim.

By 1983, I had taken a few swimming lessons and could swim in the shallow end of the pool. By the end of 1984, I had attained a minimum level of proficiency at swimming.

I could do back-flips off the diving board. I could do bomb splashes and I could swim all the four main strokes of butterfly, freestyle, breast-stroke and back-stroke. Back then, all we did was swim.

It is said it is difficult to forget your swimming skills. So on the fateful day near Mutima Beach, I was suddenly confronted with a situation in which I had to deploy my swimming skills learnt about 35 years ago.

Back in the early 1980s, one day, I and my brothers were at the pool idling about when a man of about 20 years of age came to swim. We had never seen him before. The pool had been restricted to university staff and students. So, the man came to the pool, changed into his swimming costume and stayed by the poolside. We started swimming. At first, we did not take much interest in him.
However, soon enough, we began to notice that he was following us from the side of the pool. We would swim in a playful manner from the shallow end to the deep end.

Past experience
We noticed that he kept following us as we swam. We largely ignored him and continued our leisurely swimming. Then from nowhere the man jumped into the water and tried to stand. He had dived into the deep end of the pool. It quickly became apparent that he did not know how to swim.
He started struggling with the water. The place where he had jumped into the pool was too deep for him to stand. He appeared to be drowning. I had never witnessed this before. I thought that he was going to drown. Then, my eldest brother Norbert jumped into the pool, to try and save him.
As soon as he got close enough to reach out to him, the fellow grabbed Norbert and attempted to cling onto him. He was panicking so much. He had both his hands on Norbert. Soon enough, they both started to struggle in the water. A very dangerous scenario was unravelling right before our eyes.

They were both drowning. The fellow had managed to get an iron grip onto my brother. We started screaming out for help. We were fortunate that day that there was a guard on watch at the pool. He came in and quickly saved the situation.

This was my first time to encounter a drowning man - a very traumatic event. That event left a mark on me. It never once left me. But I learned so many things from it. I learned then how fast drowning can happen. I learned then how dangerous someone who is drowning in water can be. Those lessons were to come in very handy that evening at Mutima Beach when the boat capsized.”