Families despair as authorities suspend search for missing crewmen

Feb 04, 2012 News

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-vessel may have been involved in whisky, cigarette smuggling

By Leonard Gildarie

She is just 30-years-old and had everything going for her. A home, three children and a wonderful husband.

But for Kamaldai Chuckoo, her world has come crashing down with news that her husband is missing at sea. She is barely able to stay in her home at Tuschen, East Bank Essequibo, because of the painful memories. The last of her three children, is set to celebrate his tenth birthday on Thursday. There is hope but as the days pass, it is dwindling fast.
Yesterday, government announced that it has ended the month long search for Oliver L., the vessel that disappeared into thin air. It was set to arrive in Guyana from Trinidad and Tobago on December 24, known to Guyanese as Christmas Eve Day. It never did.
According to the Ministry of Public Works, officials have exhausted
every possible course of action, after four weeks of extensive and intensive searching by both the Venezuela Coast Guard (off the Orinoco Coast), and the Trinidad and Tobago Coast Guard (off the eastern and southern coasts of Trinidad).
There have been no sightings of the vessel and crew, or credible information thereto. Enquiries and searches, both by sea and air, on the Guyana coast have been fruitless.
As a consequence, the Maritime Administration Department, regrets to advise that, having exhausted all possible courses of action available, it has decided to cease the search operations but is prepared to liaise with the various agencies or follow up any possible leads in the event that any relevant information on the missing vessel and/or its crew surfaces.

Departed Trinidad
Government was able to confirm that Oliver L departed Port-of- Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, and was scheduled to arrive in Port Georgetown at approximately 12:00 hours on December 24th. It had reportedly left Guyana on December 11th.
The vessel was manned by Captain Wexton Andrews, 33, and two sailors, Ramdat “Batman’ Roopnarine,35, and 55-year-old Clad Burnett.
Family members reported the vessel and crew missing to the Leonora Police Station on December 31, 2011.
“Unfortunately, the Maritime Administration Department (MARAD) was only notified of this incident by Mr. Johnny Ramdass, the vessel’s operator on December 31, 2011,” the Ministry’s statement disclosed yesterday. There have been reports that the vessel was actually registered to one Raymond Lord.
The following day, Minister of Public Works, Robeson Benn, summoned a meeting at the Maritime Search and Rescue Co-ordinating Centre (MRCC), with representatives from MARAD and the Guyana Coast Guard to determine a plan of action.

“Notification of this incident was made to the Trinidad and Tobago and Venezuela Coast Guards, lighthouse personnel, fishermen, national mariners, all other seagoing vessels, transiting aircraft and other stakeholders.”
The Ministry said that extensive searches were being conducted for the vessel and its crew and meetings and discussions were held with the families of the missing men and with the media to keep all informed of the Administration’s commitment and involvement in the process.
MARAD has been since been mandated by the Minister to undertake an inquiry into this incident and the Guyana Police Force (GPF) has also been notified.
Smuggling link?
So what has happened to the boat? That is the million dollar question being asked.
Kaieteur News was told by several sources that the boat has been known to smuggle whisky and cigarettes from Trinidad and Tobago. There has been speculation that this may have some linkages to the boat’s disappearance.
Fuel smuggling is also a big attraction for many boat owners
It is also not uncommon for boats to come under attack from pirates and crewmen being killed and dumped, never to be found. There has been at least one case in recent years of one trawler going missing and found abandoned in one of the Caribbean islands. The crew remains missing.
Trinidad papers have been reporting of a number of vessels which have disappeared mysteriously.
But these developments will have no comfort to the families of the three men.
Within recent days, government told them of the disheartening news of the decision to discontinue the search. Each family will be receiving $20,000 for the next three months and become eligible for public assistance and even the single parent program which involves training and even monies to start up a business.
According to Chuckoo yesterday, her children are taking it hard. “We had no Christmas…no New Year’s…my food don’t have any taste and the children would see me crying. This is hard. If you know that someone is dead, it is final. But we don’t know. I expect my husband to come rapping on the door.”
Chuckoo eloped with Roopnarine when she was just 15. “Anywhere meh husband go, we go together. I love him so.”
Roopnarine, a former weeder, is an excellent swimmer who grew up in the Mazaruni.
“I would see the clothes and his things and it is hard. The children… they praying all the time. One of them say he will behave. He wants his daddy back.”

Sherry Hartman, spouse of Andrews, the Captain, disclosed that she met with the Ministry earlier this week. She too will be receiving some assistance for her two children- one of seven while the other four.
She admitted that it is hard contemplating that her children’s father is missing and was by the ministry that the search will end soon.
She has indicated an interest in taking part in a cosmetology course offered by the government for single mothers.
Andrews has been working with Johnny Ramdass, a Leonora businessman for over eight years now.

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