The ship had been anchored for maintenance work.
A worker on a wellboat in Chile has been electrocuted to death.
The incident, which happened last week, took place aboard the wellboat “Linda Marijke”, owned by shipping and marine engineering company Detroit.
The ship was anchored in Quellón for maintenance work while waiting to offload salmon for Chile’s largest salmon farmer, AquaChile.
Quellón is the southern terminus for the Panamerican Highway and a hub for aquaculture and fisheries in southern Chiloé and the Guaitecas and Chonos archipelagoes to the south.
According to newspaper La Estrella de Chiloé, the victim, who has so far only been identified by his initials, D. A. N., was working inside the ship when he received a catastrophic electrical discharge. The crew of the ship immediately requested the presence of the Maritime Authority, which in turn requested the assistance of the Emergency Ambulance Service (SAMU).
Sadly, however, despite efforts to revive the crew member, he is thought to have died immediately from the massive electric shock.
Captain of the Port of Quellón, Ricardo Henríquez confirmed that the victim had been “cleaning the boat’s chain locker” when he “took in his hands a cable that was on the ground, placing it under his forearm, producing an electric shock.”
“Unfortunately the person was already deceased, it was not possible to revive him. The prosecutor of the Public Ministry, who is in charge of the investigative police, arranged for inspection of the body, to rule out the intervention of third parties and to determine and verify the circumstances in which this unfortunate accident would have occurred.”
