The two schoolboys who drowned when their rowing boat capsized in the Rabindra Sarobar during Saturday’s Nor’wester might have lived had they known their boat had been designed to be unsinkable, one of their two fellow rowers said on Sunday.

Pushan Sadhukhan, Souradeep Chatterjee, Devanshh Chakraborty and Sanskar Chandra — students of South Point High School who were rowing the boat — had flipped the boat back to position after it had overturned, Devanshh and Sanskar said.

But the boat was filled with water and was floating below the surface. Fearing it would sink, the four boys chose to try and swim back ashore across the choppy waters rather than hold on to the boat’s sides and weather the storm.

Pushan and Souradeep, both 14, could not make it. Devanshh later learnt the boat was unsinkable.

“We had only been taught to row. Had we known our boat would not sink, my friends could have survived by simply holding on to it,” Devanshh told The Telegraph.

Souradeep Chatterjee and Pushan Sadhukhan. The Telegraph

The four boys were practising for Sunday’s scheduled school regatta, now postponed after the tragedy. The boat had a fifth occupant, a professional rower from the Lake Club (under whose aegis the boys were practising), as the cox — who looks in the direction the boat is moving while the rowers have their backs to it.

Here is how the two young survivors described Saturday’s events to this newspaper:

Devanshh Chakraborty, Class VIII

The sky was clear when we began our practice. We had completed one lap and were on the verge of completing the second when the sky suddenly grew dark and gusty winds started blowing.

The next moment, the boat had overturned and thrown all of us in the water. I tried to swim but one of my feet was still caught in the rowing shoe attached to the boat. I managed to reach my feet but failed to untie the lace. There was no time to think. I pulled with all my strength and freed my foot.

By the time I came up, my three friends and the cox had already surfaced.

Rowers from South Point High School and Jodhpur Park Boys School competing in the semi-finals of the Bengal Rowing Club Students’ Rowing Championship 2022 on Saturday afternoon. Souradeep and Pushan were in the South Point boat, which won the race. Hours later, when they were practising for the final, their boat capsized. The Telegraph

The cox told us to grab the boat’s sides and flip it back to its original position. The four of us did. But we didn’t climb back into the boat since it was filled with water and we were afraid it would sink.

The cox told us to hold on to the boat or swim to the shore if we could. Since I feared the boat would sink, I decided swimming was the only way to survive. We all started swimming. That was the last time I saw Souradeep and Pushan.

After a while, I had no strength left to swim across the choppy waters any more. I feared I would drown. So I turned back. I could see only the cox, still holding on to the boat. I somehow managed to reach the boat.

By then, another boat had arrived but it was too small to accommodate us as well. The cox was holding on to our boat with one hand and the second boat with the other. He helped me grab the side of the second boat. We slowly swam to the shore, holding the boats for support.

Sanskar had already swum ashore but Pushan and Souradeep were missing. The cox asked me whether they could swim. When I said they could, he said they must have swum ashore too.

I had never before faced a situation like this. We had no clue how to react if the boat capsized. It was only later that I learnt our boat was unsinkable. Had I known this earlier, I would never have left the boat and tried to swim.

Sanskar Chandra, Class VIII

The weather changed drastically in a couple of minutes. Our cox said we should return to the shore immediately. But before we could speed up, the wind started blowing very hard. We tried to keep our oars steady on either side so the boat maintained its balance. But it was rocking. One of my friends’ oar slipped from his hands.

After the boat capsized, the cox told us to reposition it and we did. But it remained under the surface and we thought that if we all held on to it, it was sure to sink. The cox told us to let go of the boat for a while to allow it to float back to the surface. We did so. But the waves were making it very difficult to tread water without any support.

At this point, the cox told us to either hold on to the boat or swim to the shore and alert the club officials.

I am an advanced swimmer, so I thought it would be wise to swim. But a few seconds after I began swimming I found the current pulling me back. I tried all the swimming techniques I knew but nothing worked. So I tried backstrokes — and “cycled” when the waves came too hard — and survived.

After I reached the shore, I rushed to the Lake Club and asked for help to rescue the others. Rescue boats were sent. Devanshh too arrived at the Lake Club and asked me where Souradeep and Pushan were. I realised that they were missing.