–maintains vessel was not overloaded
The Maritime Administration Department (MARAD) has defended the loading of the MV Barima, maintaining that there is no indication the vessel was overloaded before it sank off the Essequibo coast on Saturday night.
Responding to questions from the media on Tuesday, Director General Stephen Thomas explained that while the 87-year-old vessel’s carrying capacity varies depending on the amount of cargo on board, the determining factor for overloading is the vessel’s load line.
Thomas said official documentation shows the MV Barima is certified to carry up to 394 passengers and a maximum of 126 tonnes of cargo, with its carrying capacity varying depending on the mix of passengers and cargo on board.
He explained that the amount of cargo a vessel can carry decreases as the number of passengers increases, and vice versa.
“The capacity can vary if you have cargo or a full load of cargo or no cargo,” Thomas said, adding that the vessel’s certified limits take both passenger numbers and cargo weight into account.
Asked how authorities determine whether a ferry has exceeded its capacity when passengers are not individually weighed and some people may not appear on the manifest, Thomas said the vessel’s load line serves as the accepted measure.
“If the load line isn’t submerged, the vessel isn’t overloaded,” he explained.
According to Thomas, preliminary reviews indicate the MV Barima’s load line was only just submerged before it departed Georgetown, which he described as normal because vessels sit lower in fresh water than they do in seawater.
He said, “When it goes into seawater, it would be floating higher because of the density of the water.”
Thomas therefore maintained that, based on the vessel’s load line, there was no indication it had been overloaded.
However, he acknowledged that questions surrounding how the cargo was distributed aboard the ferry remain unanswered.
“I haven’t seen the distribution of the weight. I guess the investigation would show that, but I don’t know how the weight was distributed at the top or the bottom. I don’t have a record of that,” Thomas said.
His remarks came amid continued public scrutiny over whether the vessel was overloaded with passengers and cargo, and whether the distribution of the cargo contributed to the sinking.
Thomas said those issues are expected to be examined as part of the government’s investigation into the disaster.
