Dozens of people remained missing and feared dead Monday after a government ferry carrying 133 passengers and crew capsized in dark waters off the North Atlantic coast of Guyana late Saturday night, with authorities revealing that crew members had tested positive for marijuana, the passenger list was found to be inaccurate, and the captain was taken into police custody as an investigation into potential criminal wrongdoing was launched.
Sixty-seven people had been rescued as of Sunday afternoon, including 15 children, but no survivors were found after that point, leaving the fate of the remaining passengers deeply uncertain.
What We Know So Far
The MV Barima departed Georgetown, Guyana’s capital, shortly after 3 p.m. on Saturday, heading along the North Atlantic coast toward Port Kaituma, a village that serves largely Indigenous communities near the Venezuelan border. The vessel, which makes the journey weekly, ran into trouble around four hours into its voyage.
Air traffic control received a distress call from the ferry at approximately 11 p.m. Saturday, triggering an emergency search and rescue operation involving state and private boats, helicopters, planes, and fishing vessels, the Associated Press confirmed. The vessel had capsized approximately 11 kilometers from shore near the Pomeroon River.
Public Works Minister Juan Edghill confirmed the MV Barima carried 116 passengers and 17 crew members. The rescued group included 41 men, 11 women, six boys, and nine girls, Prime Minister Mark Phillips said in a statement Sunday.
No survivors have been found since Sunday afternoon, Reuters confirmed. The captain and other crew members were taken into police custody Sunday evening, Edghill announced.
Rescue efforts were seriously hampered in the initial hours because the capsize occurred in darkness and the first responding vessels lacked scanning equipment, forcing rescuers to rely on eyesight and sound to locate survivors, the CBC confirmed.
Oil and gas sector companies subsequently deployed vessels with scanners and government divers were activated to enter the submerged ferry to search for bodies. Authorities expanded the search area to 1,040 square kilometers from an initial 400 square kilometers.
Edghill initially told reporters Sunday afternoon that there was no evidence of neglect on the ferry operator’s part. By Sunday evening his position had shifted. He confirmed the captain and at least one other crew member had tested positive for marijuana, Reuters confirmed.
A further complication emerged when it became clear that a number of rescued survivors were not listed on the ferry’s passenger manifest. The inaccurate records meant authorities could not confirm how many people were actually aboard when the vessel went down, DW confirmed, creating a fundamental obstacle for the rescue operation.
Phillips confirmed the vessel reported a cargo weight of 268 tons against a capacity of 284 tons and said it had been licensed to carry more than 300 passengers. It was equipped with 250 life jackets, six inflatable life rafts, and two rigid life rafts.
The boat had undergone maintenance in 2024 and was scheduled for dry docking, the process of removing a vessel from water for inspection and repair, later in 2025.
Leon Murray, a passenger who survived, described the moments the vessel began to go down in an account he gave to local outlet Ignite News. Around four hours after departing Georgetown, someone on board shouted that the boat was sinking.
After the capsize, Murray managed to swim to the surface and used a life jacket to stay afloat. Drifting in the water, calling for help, he eventually found his son and three others clinging to a floating box. Murray and his son survived. His wife, daughter, and four grandchildren had not been found. “Six of them gone,” Murray said.
What Authorities Are Saying
Prime Minister Phillips addressed the nation with both condolence and warning at a Sunday evening press conference, announcing that a formal investigation had been launched into potential wrongdoing by members of the police force, the defence force, and the maritime administration department.
“Let me be absolutely clear: where negligence, misconduct or criminal wrongdoing is established, those responsible will face the full force of the law,” Phillips said.
Edghill urged families of all those who had been aboard, whether listed on the manifest or not, to contact authorities immediately to help establish an accurate count of the missing. “So to the families that are out there wondering about their loved ones, we are doing everything that is humanly possible to find them,” Edghill said.
The prime minister confirmed the captain and mate of the vessel, both among those rescued, had returned to the area to assist with the search operation before the captain was placed in custody.
Earlier in the day, Edghill attributed the capsize to tidal conditions, citing statements from rescued passengers. That explanation did not address the crew drug testing results or the manifest inaccuracies that emerged later in the day.
Why This Matters
The sinking of the MV Barima exposes multiple simultaneous failures in maritime safety oversight that compounded to produce a disaster in which dozens of people may have lost their lives.
The inaccuracy of the passenger manifest is among the most serious. Maritime regulations require precise records of everyone aboard a vessel specifically so that search and rescue operations can be conducted with defined parameters.
When rescuers do not know how many people they are looking for, they cannot know when to transition from rescue to recovery, and families cannot receive accurate information about whether their loved ones were even on board.
The presence of unregistered passengers on a government ferry that makes regular scheduled voyages to remote communities indicates a systemic failure of boarding procedures that authorities apparently tolerated over a significant period.
The positive marijuana tests among crew members add a second layer of accountability questions. Operating a large passenger ferry carrying more than a hundred people through coastal waters at night requires sustained attention and sound judgment.
Whether impairment contributed directly to whatever navigational or operational error preceded the capsize will be central to the criminal investigation Phillips announced.
The proximity of the scheduled dry docking to the date of the capsize raises a third line of inquiry. The vessel was due for its routine out-of-water inspection later in 2025, a standard maintenance interval designed to catch hull, structural, and mechanical problems that cannot be assessed while a ship is in service. Whether any such problems were present but undetected will be among the questions investigators must answer.
For Guyana’s government, the disaster arrives at a sensitive moment. The country has become one of the fastest-growing oil producers in the world following massive offshore discoveries in recent years, generating enormous wealth that has yet to translate evenly into improved infrastructure and public services.
A government ferry serving remote Indigenous communities near the Venezuelan border capsizing in the dark, with inaccurate records and an impaired crew, is a visible measure of that gap.
What Happens Next
The search and rescue operation was continuing as of Sunday evening, with divers entering the submerged vessel and the expanded 1,040-square-kilometer search zone being scanned by oil sector vessels equipped with detection equipment.
Phillips’s announcement of an investigation into the police, defence force, and maritime administration department signals that the accountability process extends beyond the immediate crew to the regulatory and oversight bodies responsible for certifying the vessel’s safety and approving its operations.
For Leon Murray and others who survived, the coming days will bring the grief of confirmation for those still missing. For families across Georgetown and the communities along the Guyana coast that rely on these weekly ferry services, the sinking of the MV Barima will reshape how they think about the boats they board and the assurances they receive from the people responsible for keeping those vessels safe.
Sources: DW;Reuters;AP
