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Tonga ferry Princess Ashika underwater - Source: Royal New Zealand Navy -
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Tongans have been given yet another possible reason their doomed
ferry Princess Ashika sunk - the captain was sleeping as it filled
with water.
An inquiry into the tragedy has revealed a raft of possible
explanations why the ageing vessel rolled and sank late on August
5, taking 75 men, women and children to their deaths.
Extensive corrosion, large holes and poor lashing of freight
carried on deck have all been named as suspect causes of the
midnight accident.
But adding to the murky picture is fresh news that the boat's
captain, Maka Tuputupu, had actually been asleep through much of
the ordeal, the Matangi Tonga newspaper reported.
A passenger, boat mechanic Tangimana Lemoto, has told the Royal
Commission of Inquiry underway in Tonga that he was on the bridge
for the final hour of the sinking.
The boat slowly listed and flooded while the captain slept in a
cabin nearby, Lemoto said.
Asked at what point the captain emerged, he said: "The vessel was
already seriously tilted and I was standing outside the
bridge."
"I heard someone come in to wake the captain up. And that was the
only time I saw the captain go into the wheelhouse, when he was
woken by this person," he said.
"The last thing I knew was that I heard him making the mayday
calls."
Five minutes later, the boat had sunk.
The captain, who was one of the 54 men who survived, has already
told the media he expects to go to jail for his role in the
disaster.
Lemoto was also able to confirm the rumour that passengers were
given no warning of the situation, despite the fact that crew had
been bailing water with buckets for two hours before the ferry went
down.
The commission will hear evidence for several months before
presenting its final report to the country's monarch, King George
Tupou V, next March.
Captain Barry Young, from the New Zealand Maritime School, said it
was a hard case to investigate because there was a litany of
concerns surrounding the 37-year-old vessel, which had been
purchased from Fiji just one month before the sinking.
"There were just so many problems, as we've been hearing," Young
said.
"It's hard to know where to start with it."
