Port Kaituma-bound vessel sinks in Atlantic with $80M in cargo

Jan 21, 2014 News

 
– captain and crew rescued by fishing boat  

The owners of a Port Kaituma bound vessel, along with a number of business persons in the North West District are counting heavy losses after it sank on Sunday with millions of dollars in cargo in the Atlantic Ocean some 45 miles from the mouth of the Waini River.
Fortunately the captain and his two-man crew were rescued by a fishing boat that was passing in the area shortly before the cargo boat “MV Stollie” went down.
From all appearances, the cargo boat developed engine trouble while it was in treacherous waters way out in the Atlantic and the Captain and crew took no chances with their lives and sought help in the nick of time, leaving the vessel to the mercy of the high waves.
All its cargo totaling about $80M in clothing, foodstuff and other items went down also.
Kaieteur News understands that the vessel sailed from Port Georgetown last Friday after rectifying some mechanical problems it had encountered.
According to a source that is closely associated with the vessel, the Captain claimed that during the journey, he heard an explosion emanating from the engine and the engine sputtered to a stop.
“He say all he hear was ‘pow!’ Like de engine head buss,” the source said.
He explained that there were no reports of any leakage on the vessel although on Saturday the captain had requested a water pump, which was subsequently taken out to the “MV Stollie” at the mouth of the Pomeroon River by speedboat.
According to the source, following the distress call, a speedboat was immediately sent out to render assistance to the crew and to try to ascertain if anything could have been done to save the vessel from sinking.
“Whole day we search and all we found were food boxes, toilet paper and some empty plastic bottles that were on the boat,” the source told this newspaper.
He said that the area where the vessel went down is so treacherous that any attempt to salvage it was dismissed.
“Based on the location, we have to write it off,” he said.
Meanwhile, some angry vendors at Port Kaituma who lost their cargo on the vessel are demanding some amount of compensation.
Clothes vendor Yonette Barrington told this newspaper via telephone yesterday that she is so frustrated since she has not received any official word from the owners of the vessel.
She explained that after loading her goods onto the vessel in Georgetown, she travelled to Port Kaituma via aircraft, with the assurance that her cargo would arrive there yesterday.
“All we hear was de boat coming and then we hear it turn back, now we hearing that de boat sink,” Barrington told Kaieteur News.
Another vendor, Shelliza Ramdat, claimed that she loaded four jumbo bags with clothing worth $500,000 on the boat on Friday and flew into Port Kaituma the following day to await the vessel’s arrival.
She said that yesterday she was getting all kinds of conflicting reports, which made her very suspicious.
“We hear that the boat tek in water. We hear that they tek off the goods and put it on another boat. But then we hear dat they see goods floating,” Ramdat stated.
Gowkarran Persaud who has been using the service for the past two years, also had four bags on board the ill-fated vessel.
He too is lamenting his loss and is demanding compensation.
Maritime officials are investigating.