Tears and tributes as MV Barima Chief Engineer Paul Seepersaud laid to rest

What this source establishes

Chief Engineer Paul Seepersaud, 44, a T&HD employee with "more than three decades at sea", was buried on Wednesday 29 July at the Wesleyan Church, New Amsterdam. [SINGLE SOURCE — identification detail] "Seepersaud's body was recovered on July 20… His sister told Kaieteur News that she identified him by the distinctive tattoos on his body." This is a rare concrete account of how an identification was made. IDENTIFICATION/RECOVERY TALLY BY REGION, new to the record: "To date, the bodies of four Berbice victims have b

Key claims

• Chief Engineer Paul Seepersaud, 44, a T&HD employee with "more than three decades at sea", was buried on Wednesday 29 July at the Wesleyan Church, New Amsterdam.
• [SINGLE SOURCE — identification detail] "Seepersaud's body was recovered on July 20… His sister told Kaieteur News that she identified him by the distinctive tattoos on his body." This is a rare concrete account of how an identification was made.
• IDENTIFICATION/RECOVERY TALLY BY REGION, new to the record: "To date, the bodies of four Berbice victims have been recovered and returned to their families for burial. They are 54-year-old Orin Anthony Clarke of New Amsterdam, 28-year-old Kevin Wilson of Glasgow Village, 46-year-old Devon Mars of Sandvoort Village and 54-year-old Mark Abrams of No. 53 Village, Corentyne."
• "Another Berbice resident, 56-year-old Raymond Somra of Islington Village, East Bank Berbice, remains among those still unaccounted for."
• The funeral was attended by ministers Vickram Bharrat and Zulfikar Mustapha and by opposition MPs Saiku Andrews, Dr Terrence Campbell and Natasha Singh-Lewis, and attorney Darren Wade.
• Mustapha, for the President and government: "Please know that you do not grieve alone. Every Guyanese who heard of the MV Barima tragedy felt a deep sense of shock and sadness."
• Dr Terrence Campbell: "He kept doing it. He went out there every day doing his job, and to me he is also a hero."
• The article gives the toll as "the 73 people confirmed dead in Guyana's worst maritime disaster."

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