---
title: "Guyana Ferry Disaster Kills at Least 53 in Country's Worst in Decades"
description: "At least 53 people died when the ferry MV Barima capsized off Guyana's coast, in what officials call the country's worst maritime disaster in decades. Seventy-six people were rescued. The captain and a crew member were detained after testing positive for marijuana."
category: "World"
category_url: https://newsparlor.com/category/world
author: "Sofia Russo"
published: 2026-07-22T07:33:10.000Z
updated: 2026-07-22T07:33:10.000Z
canonical: https://newsparlor.com/article/guyana-ferry-disaster-kills-at-least-53-in-country-s-worst-in-decades
tags: ["guyana", "ferry", "maritime-disaster", "essequibo"]
---
# Guyana Ferry Disaster Kills at Least 53 in Country's Worst in Decades

At least 53 people died when the ferry MV Barima capsized off Guyana's coast, in what officials call the country's worst maritime disaster in decades. Seventy-six people were rescued. The captain and a crew member were detained after testing positive for marijuana.

At least 53 people died when the ferry MV Barima capsized off the coast of Guyana, in what officials have described as the South American country's worst maritime disaster in decades, [Al Jazeera reports](https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/7/21/guyana-reports-ferry-disaster-death-toll-rises-to-41). Seventy-six people were rescued.

## What happened

The vessel went down on Saturday, July 19, while traveling from the capital, Georgetown, to Port Kaituma, in the Essequibo region in the country's north-west.

According to Al Jazeera, the MV Barima was an old boat, built in 1939. There is confusion over exactly how many people were aboard: the passenger manifest listed 133, but officials believe the true figure was around 179, which would leave dozens still unaccounted for beyond the confirmed dead. Sixteen vessels were deployed to the site, with French and local divers leading the recovery.

The gap between the manifest and the likely number aboard is itself part of the story, and a recurring feature of such disasters: when a boat is not carrying an accurate record of who is on it, families cannot know for certain whether relatives were aboard, and rescuers cannot know how many people they are still searching for.

## The investigation

Attention has turned quickly to the conduct of the crew.

Al Jazeera reports that police took the captain and at least one crew member into custody after they tested positive for marijuana. The country's public works minister, Juan Edghill, was blunt about it. "We have a zero tolerance for members of the crew drinking or smoking while at work," he said. "And for us to have positive tests from the captain, this is serious."

That is an allegation about the crew's state, not yet a finding on the cause of the sinking, and the two should not be conflated. What caused an 87-year-old vessel to capsize, whether overloading, the boat's age and condition, weather, crew error, or some combination, will be the subject of the investigation. The positive tests are one line of that inquiry, not its conclusion.

## The wider picture

For a country of Guyana's size, a loss of this scale is a national tragedy, and it is worth setting in context.

Guyana is a small nation on the northern coast of South America, and much of its transport, particularly to remote regions like the north-west, depends on river and coastal boats. That reliance makes maritime safety a matter of everyday life rather than an occasional concern, and it makes an accurate reckoning of what went wrong on the MV Barima important beyond the immediate grief: the same routes and, often, the same kinds of aging vessels carry people every day.

The confirmed toll stands at 53, with dozens more unaccounted for, and both the search and the investigation were continuing.

## Sources

- [Guyana reports ferry disaster death toll rises](https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/7/21/guyana-reports-ferry-disaster-death-toll-rises-to-41)