Three Guyanese sailors who left Trinidad for home on their cargo vessel last Wednesday are missing and local and regional maritime officials have mounted a search for them.
Missing are the captain of the vessel, Wexton Andrews called ‘Mampy,‘ 33, of Uitvlugt; Ramdat Roopnarine, 38, of Lot 843 Zeelugt West Coast Demerara; and Clad Burnette.
According to a statement yesterday from Keon Price, the agent for the MV Oliver L on which they worked, the crew members are employed with Balkhisson Ramdass, the managing partner of a company which transports general cargo between Guyana and Trinidad. The vessel is registered in the name of Raymond Lord, the statement said.
On December 11 the three crew members left Guyana for Trinidad on the Oliver L and after spending ten days in the Twin Island republic they then were thought to have departed on December 21or 22 for their return voyage, but have not been heard from since.
When Stabroek News visited the relatives of Ramdat Roopnarine at his residence yesterday, the man’s weeping wife Kamaldai Shuckoo related that her husband had been working on the vessel for about two years. She said that he had called her from Trinidad on December 21 informing her that he was about to embark on his return trip. “He call me about 10 the night to say that he leaving Trinidad and gonna arrive in Guyana on Christmas Eve day, so that he could spend de holiday with me and he three children and family… I never hear from he again, that was the last time anyone hear from he.”
Family members voiced concern over the attitude of the manager of the vessel who they claimed was reluctant to give them information concerning the details of the search or information about the relatives of the crew members on board with Roopnaraine.
In his statement yesterday Price said that he had last made contact with captain of the vessel, Wexton Andrews, on December 22, who told him that it would arrive on Saturday, December 24. When the boat did not appear, Price said, not much attention was paid since the weather was bad at the time and this was possibly the cause of the delay. On the basis of information he had received from other vessels his office then calculated the new arrival time as the morning of Monday, December 26 at the latest. In the meantime, the statement continued, there was no communication with the Oliver L and no sighting was recorded.
The statement also said that the Trinidad Coast Guard had been notified on December, 25, and they had reported that a search had been conducted along their southern shores but they had observed nothing. The Venezuelan Coast Guard had also been notified, Price continued, and they too had reported that there were no sightings following aerial reconnaissance along their coast.
On December 27, Price further said, an aircraft from Air Services Ltd had been hired to undertake an aerial search; it flew up to the Waini but came up empty handed.
On the advice of senior seamen, the Trinidadian authorities had once again been contacted and they had forwarded a message saying that they had notified the Coast Guard in Guyana, Venezuela, Barbados and Grenada and would be notifying all islands up to Puerto Rico.
Price went on to say that a small wooden vessel with three experienced seamen on board had been sent to search the Orinoco River area in Venezuela on December 28, but they had not yet returned to report.
Kalawattie Sukhran, Roopnarine’s distraught mother recalled that her only son had called her upon arriving in Trinidad. The father of three, she said, had telephoned her almost every day; “He is me only son,” she explained, “and he always call me and say, “Mummy everything aright and I gonna come home soon to spend time with de family.‘”
Sukhran said her New Year’s wish was to have her son at home with his three children who had been crying over the past days asking, “When will daddy come home grandma?”
According to relatives, they went to the Leonora Police Station two days ago to make a report about the incident, but the police officers informed them that they could not do so in Ramdass’s absence. “One of the police officers ask me for de boss number [Ramdass], and when he get it I see he left to make a call upstairs. When the officer returned he tell me that he aint getting through with the man. Meh started to cry, how meh beg de police to make to see if they get through back with de boss but they didn’t had any time with we,” one relative complained.
Price’s statement said that a formal report had been made at the Leonora Police Station and to the harbour master.
Meanwhile, like Roopnarine’s wife, Andrews’ wife too expressed her anxiety about the safety of her husband, who she said had been employed with Ramdass for the past seven years and had three minor children depending on him. “I am very concerned about my husband… I can‘t imagine the New Year greeting me without the person I love the most not around.” While hoping for a positive answer about her missing husband, the woman said that she would not give up but would be strong for their three children by trusting in God.
Speaking with Stabroek News Ramdass refuted any suggestion that everything possible was not being done to find the missing men: “I doing everything I can,” he said; “some men were sent to do another search but they couldn’t go over the Orinoco Rover because the sea was very rough… They called me this morning to tell me that they were leaving Venezuela because they had to sleep in an inhabited area because the sea was unfriendly…This information was communicated to the Venezuelan authorities… I am investing all this money and will continue to because I am concerned about the lives of those men.”
