Cebu roll on roll off ferry sinks.

[Tony Wilding]

the cebu ferry lady of mount carmel sinks in flat calm seas, 2 dead women pulled from the sea, 55 rescued , some missing, captain stated he thinks a stability problem because of buses and trucks on board, ? LADY OF MOUNT CARMEL.jpgphoto uploaded to Shipwrecks Gallery

[robpage]

Maybe no one works out the stability anymore . I would believe that Sealink ferries over thirty years ago had the mate watching the loading . If the thing was loaded unstably then someone wants a lesson in cargo loading . Death is sad , but avoidable death ...

[Doc Vernon]

As said death can be avoided by correct processes why don't things get done correctly cheers

[j.sabourn]

Rob I would assume this being an older vessel and built before the advent of information provided on a computer screen, there may have been some lack of knowledge on how to work out this problem. My 10 years as mate on cargo, bulk, vessels this was always one of the primary jobs. Havent heard too much about this disaster, but if a passenger carrying vessel this should have been the primary safety job of those onboard. As said in previous posts, everyone seems to think ships are foolproof due to computers etc. this is not the case. John Sabourn

[robpage]

To my mind , and not casting blame , ( yet ) If the master of a vehicular / passenger ferry left port knowing the stability was incorrect , and there is a death , due to that , he should be charged with corporate homicide . If he then admits it to the vultures of the press then he is possibly criminally insane too . I remember examining a huge bend in a Channel Island car ferry ramp , caused by an experienced master , who rang Astern instead of Ahead , then compounded it with a double Astern ring , he was stood the wrong side of the external telegraphs , and made an error , I was talking to the Docks and Harbours Engineer when he appeared , first words were " time you forking engineers knew the difference between Ahead and Astern , now look what you have done " . Our movement book matched the bridge one , the excuse was then changed to " did you forkers not know what I wanted " . I thought the Herald of Free Enterprise had taught us much , maybe not !

[Captain Kong]

Considering that the Philipines probably have more Seafarers than any other country, you would think that the Government would train, supervise . legislate, and inspect the qualifications and experience of its Seafarers more than they do now.
Or is there a lot of corruption in their equivelant of our BoT and MoT regulations.

Thouisands have died on the Ferries out there over the recent years and still they do nothing about it.
Brian.

[Louis the Amigo]

Hi, shipmates, Worldwide between 2002-2011 over 250 ships have sunk killing some 800 seafarers, main reason cost cutting by owners and no health and safety laws. Ref "The swanland result is death for our shipmates who do now what we did years ago R.I.P. to them all

[Tony Wilding]

the same Company that owned her lost another not that long ago, on this one the drivers and coductors, and truck drivers were not listed as they travel free, most disasters are caused by unseaworthy Ships, not maintained, bribery and corruption is rife in all Goverment Agencies, a safety Certificate is worth a fortune, example, i paid for Annie to have driving lessons, she even got a Certificate from the Driving School, paid for her to get a licence and take Her Test, which She did, but unless 3000 Pesos were handed over first there would be no Licence, if you paid you got the Licence even if you failed the Test, many Petty Officials are driving around in new 4X4,s at well over a million pesos each. was elections recently, candidates were outside polling stations buying votes.

[Rick R]

We lived in the Philippines for around 3 years, about a year in Manila then 2 years in Cebu. Corruption is rife and standards are difficult to maintain. I wouldn't go near any of the ferries, having heard a few stories from Filipino Officers that had sailed on them.
Embarrassingly during the STCW Manila Amendments conferences in the Philippines, the country was on the verge of being dropped from the white list. Unfortunately the worlds shipping would come to a halt of they did that. They have some good maritime colleges, but are outweighed by the poor ones and the poor training system.
The aviation industry is in a similar state after many scandels of fraudulent licences, they are blacklist in the EU and are restricted to a few flights to the USA (limited to certain approved aircraft).

Sadly change needs to occur, but the country is held back by corruption from the top down.


In this situation it is entirely possible that the Captain had no real understanding of the risks involved due to poor training.

[j.sabourn]

Hope your not on someones top of the pops now. We all know how government officialdom over the world is rife with dishonest officials. Some of our own are now being caught. Think of all the ones who aren't caught. The same as all these big drug busts, makes you wonder how much is getting through. Regards Philopean crew was a post sometime ago I was mate on a ship in the late 60"s and changed from chinese to philopean crew in Hong Kong. Every member of crew had printed qualifications of every job on ship imagineable. Most had never been to sea before. However they were cheap. John Sabourn