"I feel bad, I feel worse than guilty, but at the same time, I know that it was the sea that did this to me". These are the words of Manuel Coelho, the helmsman of the boat that sank on the 7th, in Troia, killing four people, one of them an 11-year-old child. 

"I had all the conditions for this not to happen and it happened to me", he said, in an interview with CNN and TVI. 

"I am living this all the time. I am not well", he continues, saying: "I could have stayed there too, maybe it would have been easier".

In the same interview, Manuel Coelho says that that morning he sailed to the place where he goes "almost always" when he goes fishing. "When I reached the final phase of the channel I began to notice that the sea was getting rough and I commented to them 'this is not possible, let's go back'", he recalled.

"When I was turning back, I was hit by a wave, I don't even know where it came from. It was a matter of seconds. There were two [occupants] that I assumed were immediately thrown out, Ricardo and the other friend, and I stayed inside the cockpit turned upside down with his son, the boy", explains the helmsman, saying that an air bubble was created, leaving him and the child submerged up to the neck. 

"I can't say exactly how long, but I calmed the boy down and told him 'we are going to get out of this. When you get out there your father and friends will be there'", he says, saying that he managed to put Francisco, the 11-year-old boy, out of the boat. 

"I couldn't get out because I had to go back to get some air. And when I go to get out, the boat turns over again. When the other wave came, I could see the light, and that was when I dived again and got out. I still managed to swim to the boat and I held on, and I kept seeing them. I couldn't go and get them, they were getting further and further away. They were screaming. I don't even want to hear the screams. The only person I didn't see and who could be further ahead, was the boy, who was the only one who had a life jacket", the helmsman recalls in the same interview. 

"When the boat sank, I let go of the boat and kept swimming. In the meantime, a boat comes along that sees the bow, and I started waving one arm in the air and screaming, and they were the ones who rescued me", he recalls. 

When asked about what he would like to say to the families of the victims, he is sparing with his words: "If I could, I would bring them all back here, I don't have that power. I don't know how I can help them any more". 

Regarding the alleged 50 euros that were paid for the trip, Manuel says that "the expenses had to be shared". "We didn't do any calculations", he assures. 

The vessel, he assures, "was brand new" and the insurance "covered the 6 occupants": "it cost me 300 and something euros".

"They sent an expert [from the insurance company] the very next day, they didn't even let me cool down and now I am waiting", he also says, stressing that he doesn't know how the matter "will end". 

It should be recalled that, on the 7th, the vessel, called 'Lingrinhas', was carrying four men and an 11-year-old boy, allegedly to go and catch cuttlefish, when it sank about a mile and a half (approximately three kilometres) from Troia.

The boat, registered in Poland, but with a mooring buoy in an anchorage in the Port of Setúbal, is said to have sunk, going down immediately, at around 07:00, but the Maritime Police only received the alert three hours later, at 10:05.

The helmsman and owner of the boat, a 62-year-old man, was rescued alive by another boat that passed by the area and, on the very day of the sinking, the bodies of the boy, 11 years old, and another man, 23, were recovered from the sea.

The search continued and mobilised resources on land, sea and air for several days, with the authorities trying to locate the other two missing passengers, the boy's father and the other man, 21 years old, brother of the 23-year-old who had already been found.

Two bodies, presumably of these victims, washed ashore in the last few hours. One body washed ashore late on Friday afternoon in Troia. The news, reported by CNN Portugal, was confirmed to Notícias ao Minuto by a source from the National Maritime Authority (AMN). Contacted by Lusa, a source from the Sub-Regional Emergency and Civil Protection Command of the Alentejo Litoral confirmed that a body was found at 18:42, on Bico das Lulas beach, in Troia.

This is the second body to appear in the area in two days since, this Thursday, the body of a man, "in an advanced state of decomposition", was found on a beach in the Comporta area, in the municipality of Grândola (Setúbal). 

CNN reports that the body found in the Comporta area belongs to the 24-year-old man who was the victim of the shipwreck in Troia, on 7 April, explaining that all that remains is to find the 40-year-old man.

To Notícias ao Minuto, a source from the AMN said that it is not yet possible to confirm that these bodies belong to the two missing from the shipwreck, citing judicial secrecy. 

Leia Também: Inquérito a naufrágio de barco perto de Troia sem arguidos constituídos (Portuguese version)