After weeks of searching, the Maritime Administration Department (MARAD) of the Ministry of Public Works has called off the search for the missing cargo ship Oliver L.
The Government Informa-tion Agency (GINA) reported yesterday that MARAD has indicated that having exhausted all possible courses of action available, it has decided to end the search operations for the missing vessel.
However, the agency said it is willing to work with other organizations or follow up any possible leads in the event that any pertinent information on the missing vessel and/or its crew is revealed, GINA reported. MARAD said it has been mandated by Public Works Minister Robeson Benn to undertake an inquiry into this incident and that the police have also been notified, the report said.
On December 21 last year, the “Oliver L” captained by Captain Wexton Andrews, 33, departed Port-of-Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, and was scheduled to arrive in Georgetown at about 12:00 hours on December 24.
On board were two other crew members: Ramdat Roopnarine, 38, and Clad Burnett, 55. The vessel never arrived. Additional time was allotted due to adverse weather and a new arrival time was calculated to be December 26, latest.
GINA said that MARAD was notified of the incident on December 31 by the vessel’s operator, Johnny Ramdass. Consequently, on January 1, 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.
Coast guards of Trinidad and Tobago and Venezuela as well as Lighthouse personnel, fishermen, national mariners, all other seagoing vessels, transiting aircraft and other stakeholders were notified of the missing vessel.
Searches were conducted for the vessel and its crew, and while this was going on the families of the missing crew and the media were kept up to date with the process. According to GINA, MARAD said that after one month of searching there has been no sighting of the vessel and crew, or credible information thereto, has been received.
Stabroek News had reported that the MV Oliver L has had several brushes with the law in recent times over fuel smuggling and according to relatives of the missing men, there have been instances in the past when the men reported that they encountered law enforcement officials while operating the vessel.
In 2008, the vessel, which is white in colour with a black hull, was seized by the authorities while transporting alleged smuggled fuel and it was handed over to the GDF Coastguard, which was keeping it in custody for the Guyana Energy Agency (GEA).
The owners of the vessel had approached the courts and it was subsequently released to them minus the fuel, which the GEA seized.
Chandradatt Ramdass, the brother of Johnny Ramdass, the managing partner of the company which owns the vessel, and two of the three missing sailors, Andrews and Roopnarine, were later found guilty of transporting petroleum in bulk quantity on sea without a bulk transportation carrier licence.
They were all kept in the custody of the state until the fine for the offence was paid.
