By Wendella Davidson

OVER the years, Guyanese have become accustomed to reading about the disappearance of aircraft and vessels without a trace in particular in international waters or airspace.

Among such popular stories are of the mysterious disappearance of ships and aircraft, last known to be in the vicinity of the Bermuda Triangle, also called the Devil’s Triangle. This is an area bounded by points in Bermuda, Florida and Puerto Rico. There is too, the case of the Malaysia Airlines Flight MH 370, with 227 passengers and 12 crew members that left Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for Beijing, China, but never reached its destination.

According to The Travel.com, throughout aviation and naval history there have been several vessels that have disappeared under mysterious circumstances. Among the largest vessels are the USS Cyclops that is believed to have vanished in the infamous Bermuda Triangle.
Here in Guyana, there is the occasional news of fishing vessels that go missing along with the crew or an aircraft from one of the local airlines that crashes while on a flight to a hinterland location, or during a shuttle to transport goods for miners.

There is a November 26, 1986 incident involving a Cessna 206 Super Skywagon single-engine aircraft bearing registration 8R-GAG. The small aircraft with experienced navigator George Alexander Grandsoult in the pilot’s seat and Emile Khan, as the co-pilot was reportedly en route to the Indigenous community of Kamarang, in the Cuyuni-Mazaruni district. However, it failed to show up. The last transmission to air traffic controllers on that fateful day was reportedly at midday. Grandsoult is remembered as the true pioneer of aviation in Guyana, who is credited with teaching many local pilots not only how to fly, but also the finer knowledge of an aircraft.

The Rambarran vessels
There is also the mystery of two vessels, Gran Rio `R’ and Fiona `R’, from the Rambarran marine group that disappeared on April 1, 2000, and September 2002, respectively.
The Gran Rio ‘R’, a 230-foot cargo vessel owned and operated by Dennis Rambarran, was registered in St Vincent and the Grenadines. On April 1, 2000 with a nine-member crew sailed from Port Georgetown en route to the Coco Reef Resort at Crown Point, Tobago, with a consignment of 1,500 tonnes of silica sand. The Coco Reef Resort and beach had been destroyed by a hurricane and the sand was to have been used to develop a man-made beach.

The Gran Rio’ R’  was said to have been equipped with Global Positioning Systems (GPS) that would trigger an alarm should the vessel sink, along with radios capable of making long-distance contact within a 75 to a 100-mile radius, so its disappearance is still baffling. The vessel when it set sail was not expected to be out for no more than a week.
Port authorities in Trinidad had reported that ‘Gran Rio R’, on reaching that country, made a stop at Scarborough Harbour for immigration purposes before setting sail at about 19:00hrs on April 11, 2000, for Crown Point, the final destination.

The Trinidad and Tobago Coastguard at the Staubles Bay Station said it had received a signal from the ‘Gran Rio R’ which was then somewhere off the coast of Tobago, sometime around 21:30hrs that night. The signal indicated that the vessel was about two hours sailing time away from Crown Point, but it was taking in water. A request was made for a pump to be on standby to await the ship’s docking. However, because there was no indication that the Gran Rio `R’ was in any imminent danger, the Coastguard officials did not treat the signal as one of distress. Following the ship’s sudden disappearance, surface units from the T&T Coastguard, at times, aided by an aircraft, conducted searches of the vessel’s presumed path, all of which proved futile.

Two years later, on September 23, 2002, another Rambarran vessel, the Fiona ‘R’ with one of the siblings, Chandrama Rambarran, also called `Randolph,’ also mysteriously disappeared. The ship with R. Ramcharitar as the mate; Deodat, an engineer and sailors Lindon London and Danston George, left to transport a consignment of silica sand. Its destination was, Kingston, St Vincent and the Grenadines.

The last contact reportedly made with the ship was when Rambarran spoke with his wife in Guyana, the ship’s agent, Mr. Winston English of Wills Agencies Limited, in St Vincent, related. He said the vessel was expected to arrive around daybreak on September 24, 2002. The Fiona ‘R’ was also equipped with a GPS, but it never arrived; neither has there been any positive sightings despite coordinated searches. The fate of the vessels remains more baffling as there had been no contact with the vessel as it travelled through Caribbean waters.

Owner of the Gran Rio `R’ was Dennis Rambarran, with whom this publication had spoken for an update, on several occasions after the unfortunate incident, but would only say that he would offer relatives of the dead crew members whatever financial and other assistance he could have mustered whenever they visited.
Questioned about his brother, he would respond that he had not heard any word about him, neither his crew.

Unanswered questions
The Pepperpot Magazine recently reached out to Chris Mangru, a brother of the late seaman Morris Mangru, who was Chief Mate aboard the Gran Rio `R’. Chris offered “… I’ll be glad to know what took place and what really went down. I don’t know how to give my gratitude or sympathy on this sad news.” As he posted an old newspaper clipping with the image of the ship along with the missing crew, he added “the image above is all I’ve heard about after so long of wondering, the grief if still within.”

The clipping Chris spoke about was from a post on Social Media from Derick Seecharran, a former crew member of the Gran Rio `R’. Seecharran was scheduled to sail with the vessel but missed its departure and was left behind. On April 1, 2020, the ship’s anniversary he wrote, “Today makes 20 long years since the MV Gran Rio `R’ left Guyana for Tobago and never heard back anything about the crew or the vessel.”

Another mystery is that of the `Oliver L’, a white vessel with a black hull that departed Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, on December 21, 2011, and was scheduled to arrive in Georgetown around midday on December 24 but the vessel never arrived, even though additional time was calculated in the event the vessel had encountered adverse weather. It was captained by Weston Andrews, 33, and had two other crew members, Ramdatt Roopnarine, 38, and Clad Burnett, 55, aboard.