MV Barima tragedy… Internal records expose months of warnings, request for urgent repairs

What this source establishes

The most consequential report in this corpus since the charges. Kaieteur News says it has obtained leaked internal maintenance logs, requisitions and technical reports covering August 2025 to March 2026, signed by the master and chief engineer and endorsed by the Transport and Harbours Department's shore chief engineer and marine superintendent. On the newspaper's account they record a generator out of service, a main engine heat exchanger running at 197 to 203 degrees, a broken exhaust leaking toxic gases into an inadequately ventilated engine room, a VHF radio completely inoperable from 22 December, a damaged life raft cradle, and main engine fuel lines described in January as heavily corroded and liable to break at any time in operation. Set against that: the Minister's statement of 20 July that there was no report of any kind suggesting the vessel was unseaworthy. This archive holds none of the documents and can check none of it; what it records is that a specific, dated and checkable account now exists in public, and that no government response to it has appeared.

Key claims

• **[CORRECTED 13 AUGUST — NO LONGER SINGLE SOURCE] THIS IS THE MOST CONSEQUENTIAL REPORT IN THIS CORPUS SINCE THE CHARGES, AND IT BEARS DIRECTLY ON THE STATE'S CENTRAL SEAWORTHINESS CLAIM.** This record was first written flagged as single-sourced to Kaieteur News. That flag was wrong within a day. **HGPTV, News Source Guyana and Village Voice News each report the same records.** Of those three, only HGPTV says it obtained them; News Source says the documents were "seen by News Source" and does not say how, and Village Voice states no provenance. HGPTV and News Source name their own reporters, and News Source gives a different date range. Four accounts, substantially matching specifics, no two identical. Kaieteur News reports obtaining **leaked internal maintenance logs, requisitions and technical reports spanning August 2025 to March 2026**, which it says were signed by Captain K. Price and Chief Engineer P. Seepersaud and endorsed by the Shore Chief Engineer and the Marine Superintendent of the Transport and Harbours Department.
• **Set against Minister Edghill on 20 July 2026: \"There was no report of any kind that suggested the vessel was unseaworthy. It was in line for dry docking in keeping with the schedule.\"** This archive has recorded that statement from the outset as an absence-of-reports claim rather than a survey finding. If the documents are what the report says they are, the absence-of-reports claim cannot stand as made.
• Defects reported, by date. **31 August 2025**: generator #1 shut down during mooring; damaged water pump bearing and sheared head studs. **3 September**: compass light non-functional, GPS malfunctioning. **20 October**: both C18 main engine throttle cables damaged.
• **30 November 2025**: generator #1 completely out of service; port main engine heat exchanger overheating at **197–203°F**; broken starboard exhaust leaking toxic gases; inadequate engine room ventilation.
• **22 December 2025**: **VHF communication system completely inoperable**; damaged life raft cradle. This bears on the rescue-timeline questions recorded on this site, and on the master's court statement about missing equipment.
• **21 January 2026**: main engine fuel lines \"heavily corroded\" and, in the words the report attributes to the record, they \"can break at anytime while the vessel is in operation\".
• Also recorded: 17 November, generator repairs and shore current changeover switch; 3 December, GPS power failure and generator fan and pump failures, forward hatch repairs; 4 December, four 29-plate batteries failing to hold charge; 26 January, turbocharger throwing oil and fresh water pump seal leaking; 18 February, battery lugs for the Hiab; 13 March, submerged water pump and welding equipment requisitioned.
• **[UNRESOLVED] No government response to the leaked documents appears in the report.** MARAD has said nothing publicly on seaworthiness since 24 July.
• **This archive holds none of the documents.** It holds one newspaper's account of them. The dates, the signatories and the quoted wording are the newspaper's rendering and cannot be checked here against any original. **Nothing in this record establishes a cause of the sinking**, and Captain Price is charged and untried — the report describes him as a signatory to defect reports, which is a fact about paperwork and not a finding about his conduct or anyone else's.

This page is a research summary prepared for comment and review. It is not the article. Copyright in the original remains with Kaieteur News; 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.