Civil litigation surrounding the loss of the WEST I in the Pacific has finally ended with settlements for the injuries sustained by the crew and the loss of the master. Left unanswered is why the vessel sank.
The 167 foot fish processing vessel, a converted drill ship, had been reportedly losing money in the Alaskan trade for a number of years. The out-of-state majority owner sent an individual who had worked for him for a number of years to Seattle where the boat was located to sell it. This individual had a murder conviction overturned in California for lack of jurisdiction but had served time for associated charges relating to fraud. An interesting non-fiction book, "Trail of the Fox" described these prior events.
It was alleged by the plaintiffs that the owner or his representative had a bogus contract from a non-existent buyer in the Philippines to buy the boat for over three million dollars. Based on this contract, a marine surveyor increased his independent evaluation of the vessel from less than a million dollars to 3.1 million and the vessel was then insured by Lloyds for that amount. However, there was no P&I coverage and reportedly the insurance only covered total loss.
The boat sailed from Seattle allegedly with a pickup crew consisting of a Philippine master who was not a U. S. citizen and did not hold a U. S. license, an American licensed master serving as mate, an American licensed chief engineer and others including the owner's representative who did not have seaman's papers and apparently had never sailed as a crew member on a merchant ship.
On the night of the sinking, the master was standing the bridge watch and the owner's representative was standing the engineering watch. Upon entering the engineroom in early morning hours, the owners representative said he found water spraying through the forward bulkhead. He said that because the spray was near the generator and switchboard, he tripped the generator off the main board plunging the boat into darkness.
He and another crew member went forward and found some water (reports vary from two to four feet) in the hold forward of the engineroom. When the chief engineer was awakened half an hour later, he told the owners representative that he would go into the engineroom and see if the leak could be fixed.
The owners representative told the chief engineer that he had actuated the CO2 fixed firefighting system and therefore it was impossible to safely enter the engineroom. He said he had smelled smoke when in the engineroom and thought there was an electrical fire starting because of the water spraying on the generator and switchboard.
None-the-less, the chief engineer did go to the stairway leading down to the engineroom, and looking down with his flashlight, could see no water on the plainly visible deck plates. He said he never smelled or saw any smoke.
Witnesses stated that the vessel was abandoned on the orders of the owners representative (not the master) and later sank in the morning light. Photographs were taken of the sinking.
The Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon which was removed from the vessel by the chief mate was allegedly taken from him by the owners representative before he could actuate it. It was later found broken and was never actuated.
The mate sailed to the Hawaiian Islands where he eventually reached civilization. The remainder of the crew stayed in a liferaft and were discovered many days later by a passing merchant ship. The master died during that time, perhaps due to a lack of medicine for a medical condition he had.
The Coast Guard investigation of the casualty recommended further investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. It is understood that evidence collected in the civil litigation is being reviewed by them.
Several experts who are Associates of MEC were involved in the litigation.
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