Bridgemans Services Group, owners of the Cabo Star, the lone cargo vessel on the seabridge, believe someone may be trying to intentionally damage the vessel, after the chief engineer reported that someone tried to flush a whole lemon down the vacuum systems, causing it to shut down.
Truckers who were on the vessel when the incident occurred last Wednesday confirmed that all the toilets in the cabins and public area were closed.
The report from Chief Engineer Anton Galkin, sent by Bridgemans to acting General Manager of the T&T Inter-Island Transport Service Hafeez Mohammed, said at approximately 5 pm on November 2 during the voyage from Scarborough to Port-of-Spain the ship’s vacuum toilet system failed.
Galkin said an investigation showed that a lemon had been inserted into the system causing a blockage which led to failure.
“In my opinion, the lemon may have been inserted by an individual who deliberately wished to damage the ship’s equipment,” he said.
Vice president of the Inter-Island Truckers Association Samuel Applewhite said: “I can’t see anyone going into the toilet with a lemon and it falling in by mistake. It had to be a deliberate act that caused all the toilets to be closed because everything comes to one line on the journey.”
Applewhite said in addition to the truckers there were other passengers on board. He said it was ironic that the incident had happened at a time when the vessel was working the best it had been since it got here.
“The vessel has been sailing faster since they did work on the engine. It is now taking six hours as compared to the seven to nine hours before,” he said.
Vice president of Bridgemans Services Group Andrew Purdey expressed his own concerns about the incident. He said in recent weeks, although two engineers had left, the Cabo Star had three full inspections—class, flag and insurance—and all confirmed that the vessel is operating fully within compliance specifications.
It took several hours to bring the system back online and the vessel set sail just after 3 pm last Thursday.