The group left Bikarej Island in Arno Atoll about 3 p.m. Friday for a 15-mile trip to Majuro, the capital — normally about a 90-minute open ocean trip between the two nearby atolls. When the boat failed to show up, government officials launched a search Saturday but did not find any trace of the boat, Junan Nimoto, an official in the disaster response office of the Marshall Islands government, said early Sunday morning.
American James Debrueys of New Orleans, Louisiana is onboard the small boat that has a 40hp engine, Nimoto said.
Debrueys is a volunteer teacher with the Harvard-based WorldTeach program that supplies about 40 teachers a year to the Marshall Islands Ministry of Education, most of whom are placed in remote public elementary schools to boost English language skills of young students. Three Marshall Islanders are on the boat with Debrueys, according to Nimoto.
Debrueys has been working as a teacher at Bikarej Elementary School since August.
It is unlikely that the boat has either a radio or other safety equipment on board, according to local officials.
“I spoke with the U.S. Ambassador’s representative Tom Maus on Saturday afternoon requesting assistance from the Coast Guard,” Nimoto said.
Lt. Cmdr. George McKenzie, who heads an Australian navy group that provides technical assistance to the Marshall Islands Sea Patrol, said Saturday that the country’s patrol vessel “Lomor” was diverted from a trip to the northern islands to begin searching for the small boat on Saturday afternoon. By nightfall, however, the “Lomor” had not spotted the small boat.
The government’s airline was to dispatch one of its two planes to begin searching at first light on Sunday and “Lomor” will continue searching, Nimoto said.
Boats travel the short ocean distance between Arno and Majuro on a daily basis, bringing passengers, fish and other cargo into the capital.
“We will see what the Coast Guard can provide on Sunday,” Nimoto said.
Earlier this week, the Coast Guard concluded an unsuccessful weeklong search for a fisherman on a 12-foot outrigger canoe who was lost two weeks ago at Ailinglaplap Atoll in the central Marshall Islands.
“The canoe washed up on the ocean side of Majuro on Thursday,” Nimoto said. “The canoe was positively identified as the one lost at Ailinglaplap.”
It is about 180 miles between the two atolls. There was no sign of the 50-year-old fisherman who had been on board and who is believed to have drowned.
