https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cm2gm99nrm7o

I think 50 something rescued so far

A ferry carrying 116 passengers has sunk off the coast of Guyana with 53 people so far rescued, local authorities have said.

The MV Barima capsized near Iron Punt, on its route from Georgetown to Port Kaituma on Saturday.

A distress call was received at 23:01 local time (03:01 +1 BST), triggering an urgent search operation involving state and private boats, Public Works Minister Juan Edghill said in a statement posted on social media.

The state of the operation is currently unclear and it is not known whether authorities expect to rescue the remaining passengers.

The MV Barima was built in 1939 and is 40m (131ft) long, according to a listing on VesselFinder.

Edghill said it was fitted with 250 life jackets, two rigid life crafts and six inflatable life crafts.

Prime Minister Mark Phillips is said to be leading the government response.

Oh my goodness! Terrible tragedy, condolences to those who may have lost loved ones. The other tragedy is that vessel should have been retired decades ago but we what taking labor and resources for centuries without reinvesting has done to certain parts of the world. Yeh, I know the responses about 69yrs of mismanagement after independence but compare that with centuries of wealth extraction

This is really 😔

The amount of money they spent on repairing these old vessels coupled with the amount of downtime in dry docks is not worthwile. They should have been replaced a long time ago ...

@ray

damn - horrific

@ray

That is a whole heap of people missing

@Chrissy

happened late at night as well

God knows why they got this old vessel operating

Oh Gosh, at night! That's a fearful death; watery grave drowning at night. Most developing countries can't access affordable funding so they keep patching up old stuff. Notice European seafaring nations "donate" used vessels to developing countries in full knowledge of guaranteed parts sale for at least a generation

Mymind went back to the boating tragedy in Nevis, August 1970.

300 people aboard, only 91 survived after that boat capsized....the frenzy attracted sharks....only 57 bodies werefound.

Worse tragedy in the Caribbean seas, am aware of.

@Brerzerk

That's not the case here... Guyana got access to funds.

If the President could develop a 5+ billion, 150 acre personal farm thats capable of producing 200,000+ chicken, 1000s of sheep, goats, cows etc. How hard is it for them to source a vessel for these people?

Anyways back to the topic... based on the survivors and information released so far:

1. The vessel was overloaded

2. The vessel was taking in water since it left Georgetown and this was reported by the passengers, nothing was done by the crew

3. Passengers said that the crew were drinking. The Minister confirmed that two crew member tested positive for cannabis.

4. 35 out of the 67 survivors were not on the ship's manifest. This means that they got no clue how many people are missing of how much cargo was on that vessel.

5. Two brand new helicopters that were purchased in the past 5 years not working for months. So initially they didn't have anything to search for the people. Had to get one from Exxon.

6. Two other vessels were bought for the Region 1 route. Last one arrived last year. Nobody knows their whereabouts.

The whole situation is sad... the thing is, only poor people use these type of transportation so most likely the big ones will eventually brush this aside.

@anthonyp

good grief.

My deepest condolences to the family and friends of those perished....

According to BBC many of the rescued passengers names aren't on the passenger manifest.

One can inferred that the boat was carrying quite beyond its manifest...

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cm2gm99nrm7o

@anthonyp

I remember the big hullabaloo with the new vessels