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Princess Ashika, the ferry that sank 86 km northeast of the Tongan capital Nuku'alofa - Source: Reuters -
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Following the sentencing of those found guilty of manslaughter in the Ashika case, ONE News Pacific Correspondent Barbara Dreaver assesses the full cost of the disaster.
STORY:
So how can you? How can you even begin to count the cost, put a figure on the unnecessary, senseless loss of 74 people?
Children who will never grow up, families' lives destroyed, futures ruined.
Yet this has always been a numbers game.
The Princess Ashika cost FJ$600,000. During last year's Commission of Inquiry into the sinking, NZ Marine Brokers Ltd provided a valuation of how much the Ashika was worth before it sank.
The answer: the market value of the vessel was nil or negative. Even the valuation for scrap metal came up negative because of its paper thin plating amongst other reasons.
But FJ$600,000 was paid. Why?
The Commission of Inquiry writes of "the horrendous and frightening condition of the MV Princess Ashika. The vessel was demonstrably and unequivocally unseaworthy and unsafe. Even a person with no shipping experience could tell from the briefest inspection of the vessel that it was in appalling condition."
On the Princess Ashika's first voyage in Tonga, holes as much as 30cm in diameter were made.
On the second voyage the waves opened up 3 holes. On the third voyage another hole opened up needing a 2 metre by 2 metre metal sheet to cover it up.
On the fourth voyage, water was on the cargo deck up to a depth of half a metre. Cargo was seen floating in the hold.
On the fifth voyage the Ashika sank.
Here are some more numbers. On its last voyage, by 10pm the ship had developed a list to port. By 11.30pm the vessel was in peril.
Fifteen minutes before the MV Princess Ashika sank, an able seaman estimated the depth of water at its deepest point on the cargo desk was about 1.5m high and the ship was listing at a 45 degree angle.
By 11:45pm the water had reached the main port engine and it had to be shut down. At 11.50pm the ship capsized trapping all those inside.
So many numbers, but still no one thought to tell the passengers below they should be up on deck.
Since August 5 2009, numbers are too hard to speak of. The number of homes who are missing mothers, fathers. The number of nights that children have cried themselves to sleep. The amount of compensation the Tongan government has offered victims families on condition it be kept out of court.
It is impossible to count the human cost of this disgraceful tragedy - it's a shame those who were in authority must and should wear for failing to protect their people.
But now there is a new set of numbers:
Chief Executive of operating company Shipping Corporation of Polynesia John Jonesse - 5 years in jail.
Captain Maka Tuputupu - 6 months in jail.
First mate Semisi Pomale - 18 months in jail
Former director of the Ministry of Transport Viliami Tu'ipulotu - 3 years suspended sentence.
The counting three of these four men must now spend their time on is the number of nights they will have to spend behind bars.
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