Director General of MARAD adamant that MV Barima ferry was operating within weight limit

What this source establishes

News Source Guyana reports MARAD Director General Stephen Thomas insisting the MV Barima was within its certified weight limit and not overloaded, while conceding he has no record of how the weight was distributed. Thomas says the load line 'was just submerged', which he characterises as usual, and concludes the vessel was therefore not overloaded. The report gives MARAD's capacity figures as 394 passengers and 126 tonnes of cargo, which differ from the 120-tonne figure Thomas gave on 24 July and from Edghill's 284-tonne and 397-passenger figures of 19 July.

Key claims

• MARAD Director General Stephen Thomas stated that the MV Barima was operating within its certified weight limit at the time of its sinking and was not overloaded.
• Thomas said he is not clear on how the weight was distributed on the ferry.
• Thomas said preliminary information reviewed by MARAD indicates the vessel's passenger and cargo load complied with applicable weight restrictions.
• Thomas said the vessel was operating way below its 394 passenger capacity and 126 tonnes of cargo.
• Thomas said: 'So, if you have less passengers you can carry more weight, in terms of the distribution of the weight, the investigation will show that but I don't know how the weight was distributed at the top or the bottom, I don't have any record of that.'
• Thomas said the vessel indicator did not show that it was overloaded.
• Thomas said: 'The vessels have a load line, if the load line isn't submerged, the vessel isn't overloaded... the load line was just submerged which is usual because when it go in the sea water it will be floating higher because of the denseness, so in that context, the vessel was not overloaded.'
• A timeline for the inquiry was still to be set.

Quotations

• “So, if you have less passengers you can carry more weight, in terms of the distribution of the weight, the investigation will show that but I don't know how the weight was distributed at the top or the bottom, I don't have any record of that.”— Stephen Thomas, Director General, Maritime Administration Department (MARAD)
• “The vessels have a load line, if the load line isn't submerged, the vessel isn't overloaded... the load line was just submerged which is usual because when it go in the sea water it will be floating higher because of the denseness, so in that context, the vessel was not overloaded.”— Stephen Thomas, Director General, MARAD

This page is a research summary prepared for comment and review. It is not the article. Copyright in the original remains with News Source Guyana; the full text is held only in the private research corpus from which this archive was compiled. Follow the link above to read it at the source.