The Press and Journal (Inverness, Highlands, and Islands)
Three-deaths fishing boat could not clear water from its deck
Inquiry: Investigators find faults in trawler which sunk in North Sea
Investigators probing a trawler disaster which left three fishermen dead found a fatal flaw on the deck of the vessel.
A survey of the wreck of the Ocean Way revealed ports designed to allow water to drain away were not big enough to stop it being swamped by the sea.
The 55 ft Fraser burgh registered vessel capsized and sank in bad weather off
“Boat had been given clean bill of health a month before it sank”
the north-east coast of England.
Skipper James Noble was rescued from the water but later died in hospital.
Two members of his Filipino crew, 38- year- old Michael Pulpul and 34year-old Jonito Antonio jun, drowned and their bodies were never recovered. Two others, Romulo Roche, 28, and Nixon Ocon, 38, survived by clinging to buoys.
The Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) has now released its report on the tragedy 100 miles off Tynemouth in November last year.
It found ports designed to drain water from the deck of the boat were not effective enough to prevent the Ocean Way capsizing, and that the vessel was not able to transmit an accurate position.
The failure to find the trawler as it sank on November 2 delayed rescuers by an hour. An “incline test” – to determine the stability of a ship – had also not been carried outon the Ocean Way for more than a decade.
But last night, the vessel’s owner Billy Edwards said the issues identified in the MAIB’s report had not been highlighted during safety inspections – and revealed the boat had been given a clean bill of health just a month before it sank.
He said the ports designed to clear the deck of water had remained unchanged since he got the boat eight years ago – and he called for an overhaul of the inspection regime for smaller fishing vessels.
Mr Edwards said: “You get a major survey every five years from the Maritime and Coastguard Agency, plus you get a survey every year for guard duty on the oil rigs, and none of these things were ever brought to question with me.
“Those ports were the same size as when we got the boat eight years ago – no one had ever asked me to alter them.”
Mr Edwards also said the emergency be a confitted on the Ocean Way only gave rescuers the name of the boat, and not its location, and said he was unaware that was the case. He added: “The inspection process needs to be looked at and the MAIB have made recommendations to that effect.
“But it’s all outwith my jurisdiction. We only went through a big inspection a month before she sank and everything was up to date and up to scratch as far as we were concerned.”
The MAIB concluded it was unlikely the delay in finding the vessel would have affected the outcome of the rescue.
The Ocean Way was 40 years old at the time of the incident and well regarded for sea-keeping qualities.