Nov. 28, 2003 – St. Thomas businessman Bobby Goomansingh died Thursday as he and three companions tried to swim to shore after their boat capsized near Buck Island.
Authorities initially thought Goomansingh, the owner of Bobby's Business Machines, had drowned. But St. Thomas Deputy Police Chief Elvin Fahie said on Friday that it had been determined that he had suffered a heart attack.
U.S. Coast Guard officials said a group of visiting service personnel were alerted to that the boat was in trouble on Thursday while conducting a homeland security exercise.
"We got a call from the Ocean Rider, a snorkeling charter, stating that there was a vessel sinking with one person on board, east of Buck Island," Petty Officer Frank Arencibia of the San Juan Coast Guard station said. "The Ocean Rider was en route to recover the person. We launched a Coast Guard station boat, which was on St. Thomas at the time on a homeland security deployment."
As rescuers reached the foundering Boston Whaler, which had capsized after striking a reef, the person aboard told them that four companions had left the vessel to swim to Buck Island. Goomansingh, didn't make it.
The three companions carried Goomansingh's body ashore on Buck Island and laid it "on top of a rock where he would not be washed back into the ocean," Arencibia said on Friday. Local marine police retrieved the body.
The three survivors received medical treatment upon return to St. Thomas and were released.
John Thomas Memorial Chapel is in charge of funeral arrangements for Goomansingh; they had not been finalized as of Friday evening, a representative said.