Saipan community remembers 13 fishermen lost at sea

Patrick Romolor was 19 when he lost his father, Isidro Romolor, almost 30 years ago.

He spoke with Saipan Tribune yesterday at the 13 Fishermen Memorial Monument, where family, friends, and other members of the community joined the 28th death anniversary of the 13 fishermen who disappeared at sea on Sept. 23, 1986.

Devin Aldan stands beside the plaque of his grandfather, Isidro Romolor, at the 13 Fishermen Monument Memorial on Beach Road yesterday during the 28th death anniversary of the 13 fishermen lost at sea in the Northern Islands. (DENNIS B. CHAN)

“For many of us, coming here, celebrating Mass here, it keeps them in touch, keeps us close with lost loved ones,” he said.

Faiyeghamem, the title song of an album Romolor wrote with his brothers, was dedicated to the fishermen.

“I wrote about the time they left Agrigan, looking for shelter and ended up going straight into the eye of the storm,” he said of the song’s lyrics.

He said he was trying to write a song when a tune came into his mind with one topic: the fishermen, of whom two were also his uncles and the rest were his cousins.

“You’re out there in the middle of the storm, everything is dark, you can’t see, visibility is zero. You don’t know what’s left or right, and you’re alone. And you know you’re going to die,” he said of what came to his mind when writing the song.

Romolor said he found it difficult to write it in any other dialect other than Carolinian, adding that even the title is hard to explain.

Faiyeghamem means “have mercy on us,” he said.

“They are asking for mercy to be saved, because they are out there, capsized, they don’t know anywhere else to go. But they ask the Lord to ‘forgive us’ and ‘have mercy on us’…that’s the closest I can go,” he said.

He believes the fishermen thought of their children and family with their last breath as they knew they would no longer be able to see them.

“The refrain says, ‘how it hurts, when you’re going to die, because you won’t be able to see your kids and family anymore,’” he said.

Romolor grew up on Agrigan with his family, attending Agrigan Elementary School before moving to Saipan in seventh grade, for junior high and then later high school and college.

According to Romolor, he grew up with the fishermen, attending Agrigan Elementary School before moving to Saipan.

“I went fishing with them, hunting with them, talk stories with them, [because] back there is only one village,” he said on his childhood.

He noted how Agrigan is a large part of his family and himself wherever they go.

“I grew up there. I roam the island, I sleep with the island, I eat with the island, I fish with the island. It’s a lovely place,” he said.

Mass was held early evening yesterday at the side of the 13 Fishermen’s Monument, with a crowd gathered under tents and a pavilion.

One boy, Devin Aldan, was seen standing at the monument during Mass. When Saipan Tribune asked if he was related to any of the 13 fishermen, he pointed to Isidro Romolor’s name engraved in stone.

“That’s my mom’s dad,” he said.