Ferry with 682 on board sinks after collision off Cebu

I knew a girl in Samar. She showed me pictures of her on a ferry trip to another island. She was wearing a life jacket and wore it for the whole journey, evidently.

Thanks. Right ship, and recent clip. That black smoke tells its own story - and would have resulted in a fine in Europe or North America.

Or Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Singapore and Hong Kong - to name a few more! Harbour manoeuvres almost always cause smoke but ships generally have large fans within the funnels that force a stream of air into the exhaust to dilute the gasses and particulates. If that ship were fitted with (high-pressure super-heated) steam cleaners, they obviously aren't working either. And it doesn't help that the quality of fuel here is pretty poor.

And why is the tug pulling the stern rather than pushing?

How its done.

Pronounced "Ben Macree".

Not in my day! The captain - and ultimately the ship-owners - were/are responsible for the actions of tugs and that Philippine tug's captain does not have a clear uninterrupted view of what's astern of him. My company - and many others, I suspect - had standing orders whereby assisting tugs face the direction of their travel, which may not be the same as the ship's.

Is the tug a water tractor (Voith-Schneider, Z-peller) type? She looks a bit like the class of Z-peller tugs that HKST built in the 80's. If so, her actions are not necessarily wrong although the better practice would still have been to hook up t'other way round.

Everytime I've been to Philippines I've always travelled by boat to somewhere or other and I didn't realise that Pi had such a bad shipping reputation. Prior to inter-island flying I checked out the safety record of said airline, even if it was possible, it wouldn't have been allowed to fly in Eruopean airspace due to the fact that it didn't meet the same safety standards as here. Just hearing some of the horror stories from survivors, it's a real shame.

The list seems to be endless:-
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/467633/history-of-ferry-disasters-in-the-philippines

I suspect that the Officer Of the Watch ("OOW") aboard the inbound "Saint Thomas of Aquinas" may have had difficulty seeing the lights of the outbound "Sulpicio Express Siete" against the shore lights of Cebu. Well known problem. Radar helps, of course, providing it is well set up, but given that the collision seems to have taken place about 1.3 miles offshore the closing time for the two ships may have been rather short.

Which leaves the "Sulpicio Express Siete" clearing the harbour and seeing, to seaward, the lights of a passenger ship and we hope her radar "paint" as well as, in theory at least, her AIS ident. Was she in the wrong place?

You are, of course, assuming that there was someone on the bridge of the Sulpicio ship who was neither drunk nor drugged and possesed a functioning brain cell!

I'm trying to puzzle this out. The wreckage lies 1.3 miles off Talisay,

"The ferry had requested a change in its approach to port minutes before the accident,(Acting coast guard chief Rear Admiral Luis) Tuason said, but it was unclear if the cargo vessel had agreed"

"The captains of the two ships were alive but had yet to be questioned, Tuason said.(BBC)

Would the "Saint Thomas of Aquinas", for Cebu from Agusan del Norte, have passed south-about or north-about round Bohol? North-about looks shorter. I an't find an online set of distance tables with Agusan del Norte on them!

If she went South-about she would have run more or less NNE up the South coast of Cebu for quite a while, and if she were inshore it is possible that her lights and radar paint might have got lost in the background also. I am assuming that the radars in use were 80's technology, if they were in use at all.

This makes it much clearer:



The wreck is said to be lying 1.3 miles off Talisay; we may conclude that the collision occurred at the entrance to the separation scheme.

The Sulpicio ship involved (photos taken yesterday):


(Photo credit: AP)


(Photo credit: SunStar)

Marina - the Maritime Industry Authority - has suspended the operations of both shipping companies concerned.

As of 10.35 am today, 751 people have been rescued; 34 fatalities and 85 are missing.

The SunStar published this opinion piece penned by its columnist Attorney Frank Malilong:

Looking at the chart and the photos of the damaged Sulpicio ship, it seems to me rather likely that the following sequence of events took place. The inbound ferry was crossing the entrance to the southbound lane in preparation to alter course to join the northbound lane. The outbound Sulpicio vessel failed to acknowledge the radio message sent from the ferry which announced its intentions and rather than alter course to starboard - and it had the deep water space to allow that - thereby passing the ferry port-to-port and going around its stern, it rammed the ferry probably just forward of its superstructure. The damage suffered by the freighter is likely to be caused by the ferry's strengthened main deck area around the forward hold. Holed by the container ship's bulbous bow, the ferry's forward hold and double-bottoms - and possibly the engine room - were immediately flooded causing the ferry to sink - which took just ten minutes from the time of the collision.

Would you agree, Andrew?

The driver must have been asleep!

Yes, I do.

Assuming the ferry passed South-about round Romblon. Is it possible that both vessels were sighted against shore lights, do you think?

Here's a survivor's account:

At least two bad marks for Sulpicio in that account - no lights and going astern following collision.