A search for two men lost at sea after their boat overturned three days ago ended around 8 a.m. yesterday when the Coast Guard found their bodies near the missing boat off the Moruga coast.

The body of Carl Ramjohn, 36, of Caledonia Road, Lange Park, Chaguanas, was found trapped under the boat while the body of Floyd Lucas, 38, of Henry Pierre Terrace, St Augustine, was found floating nearby.. Ramjohn was the nephew of Jean Ramjohn Richards, wife of President George Maxwell Richards.

The bodies were taken by the Coast Guard to Chaguaramas for identification.

The two were thrown into the sea when the nets on their boat Dusk Till Dawn were snagged by a passing tug around 3.30 a.m. on Saturday. They were part of a four -man team conducting a marine life survey off the east coast in Mayaro.

Lucas’s brother Ricardo said relatives hired a boat and began searching soon after they heard of the mishap.

’We hoped and prayed to find them alive but it was not to be,’ he said.

Ricardo Lucas, who drove from Mayaro to Chaguaramas to identify the bodies, described his brother (Floyd) as the rock of his family who was ’very close’ to Ramjohn, his wife’s brother.

Carol Ramjohn, who lost her husband, Floyd Lucas, and brother Carl in the incident, did not want to speak with reporters yesterday.

Lucas described Carl Ramjohn as a quiet and reserved person.

The boat’s captain, Cyril Adolphus, 46, of Plaisance Road, Mayaro, blamed the rough seas for the mishap. Another member of the team, Ryan Mohammed 31, of Princes Town, also managed to escape.

Both survivors questioned the presence of the tug in the area and called for an investigation into the matter.

’We want to know who was responsible for the tug,’ Mohammed said, adding that so far no one has taken responsibility.

Both bodies were placed on the Coast Guard vessel CG 21, named the TTS Gaspar Grande, and escorted to Staubles Bay.

The Dusk Till Dawn was recovered, right-sided and towed to the Coast Guard Cedros Base for safe- keeping, Lt Kirk Jean-Baptiste, public relations officer of the Civil/Naval Affairs Unit, said yesterday.

Two Coast Guard vessels and a helicopter from the Trinidad and Tobago Air Guard assisted in the search.