--- title: "133 Were Aboard the Ferry That Capsized Off Guyana, Not 116" description: "Guyana's public works minister says the MV Barima carried 116 passengers and 17 crew, a total of 133, and that 67 people have been rescued. He says the vessel was not overloaded and had no mechanical fault, blaming a large wave. Authorities have still not announced a death toll." category: "World" category_url: https://herald.la/category/world author: "Brandon Cole" published: 2026-07-19T13:29:36.000Z updated: 2026-07-19T13:29:36.000Z canonical: https://herald.la/article/ferry-with-116-aboard-capsizes-off-guyana-as-search-continues tags: ["guyana", "maritime", "search-and-rescue", "caribbean"] --- # 133 Were Aboard the Ferry That Capsized Off Guyana, Not 116 Guyana's public works minister says the MV Barima carried 116 passengers and 17 crew, a total of 133, and that 67 people have been rescued. He says the vessel was not overloaded and had no mechanical fault, blaming a large wave. Authorities have still not announced a death toll. **Correction and update.** This story originally reported that 116 people were aboard the MV Barima, following the figure carried by international wire coverage. Guyana's public works minister has since given a fuller count: 116 passengers plus 17 crew, a total of 133. The figure of 116 was the passenger count, not everyone on the vessel. The story below has been corrected and updated. A passenger ferry carrying 133 people capsized off the coast of Guyana late Saturday, and the search was continuing on Sunday. The MV Barima was traveling from Georgetown to Port Kaituma when it went over about seven miles off the Essequibo Coast. [The distress call came at about 11 p.m. local time](https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/7/19/guyana-ferry-with-116-people-aboard-capsizes), which was 3 a.m. GMT on Sunday. ## The rescue Prime Minister Mark Phillips said early on that 53 people had been recovered, and expected that number to rise once there was daylight to search by. It did. [Guyanese outlet iNews reported 67 people rescued, among them 15 children](https://inewsguyana.com/15-children-among-67-rescued-so-far-as-search-efforts-continue-afrer-mv-barima-capsizing/). An earlier group of survivors was taken to Charity for medical assessment. The coastguard has worked alongside private vessels, and aircraft joined the search. President Irfaan Ali said [no effort would be spared](https://inewsguyana.com/no-effort-will-be-spared-in-mv-barima-rescue-mission-pres-ali/). Help centers for families are open at Umana Yana in Georgetown and at Port Kaituma and Kumaka in Region One. ## A caution about the numbers Guyanese authorities have not announced a death toll, and no official statement so far confirms any deaths. It is tempting to subtract the rescued from the total aboard and treat the difference as casualties. That arithmetic is not reliable during an active search and we are not publishing it. People are still being found, survivors reach shore by different routes and are counted at different times, and the total aboard has already been revised once. Every figure here is a snapshot of an operation still in progress. What can be said is that 133 people were aboard, that 67 had been recorded as rescued in the most recent Guyanese reporting, and that the search had not been called off. ## What the minister says caused it Public Works Minister Juan Edghill has given an account that rules out two of the obvious explanations and rests on a third. [The vessel was not overloaded and had no mechanical fault](https://inewsguyana.com/mv-barima-was-not-overloaded-or-had-mechanical-issues-edghill-blames-rough-atlantic-tides-for-capsizing), he said. "The boat was not overloaded by passengers or by cargo. There was no engine problem or any mechanical problem." He supported that with figures. The ferry was carrying 268 tonnes of cargo against a licensed capacity of 284 tonnes, and 116 passengers against a licensed capacity of 397. On those numbers the vessel was within its limits on both counts. His explanation is the sea. Edghill said a large wave struck the vessel, tipping it onto its side before it sank, and attributed the capsizing to rough Atlantic conditions. He dismissed suggestions of overloading as "misinformation" intended "to create panic and public mischief," and promised a full investigation. That is the government's account, offered while its own investigation is still to come, and it should be read as such. Edghill earlier said the ferry carried "some 250 life jackets, eight lifeboats and other safety gear." Whether that equipment was reachable and used in the moments the vessel went over is among the questions an inquiry will have to settle, as is whether the conditions were forecast and what that should have meant for sailing. ## The route The Georgetown to Port Kaituma run is a working service rather than a tourist one. Port Kaituma sits in Region One in Guyana's northwest, where road access is limited and coastal and river boats carry the people and supplies that have no other way in or out. That dependency is why the capacity and safety questions matter beyond this one voyage. ## Sources - [MV Barima was not overloaded or had mechanical issues, Edghill blames rough Atlantic tides for capsizing](https://inewsguyana.com/mv-barima-was-not-overloaded-or-had-mechanical-issues-edghill-blames-rough-atlantic-tides-for-capsizing/) - [15 children among 67 rescued so far as search efforts continue after MV Barima capsizing](https://inewsguyana.com/15-children-among-67-rescued-so-far-as-search-efforts-continue-afrer-mv-barima-capsizing/) - [Guyana ferry with 116 people on board capsizes](https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/7/19/guyana-ferry-with-116-people-aboard-capsizes)