We took our GB 42 Europa through Wright Sound in northern British Columbia twice last year, once when the Grand Banks anniversary fleet cruised to Southeast Alaska in May and again in July, when my wife Polly and I brought Quadra home.
Everyone wondered, as we passed a mile from the grave site, how the British Columbia ferry Queen of the North missed a course change and plowed into Gil Island. She bounced off rocks on the shore, leaving behind a propeller blade, smears of paint and a piece of the shaft support.
The ferry was cruising at more than 17 knots. After striking the rocky shoreline, the ferry continued on, even though the force of the collision stopped her engines, and sank in 1,400 feet of water about an hour later. Two of the 101 persons aboard apparently perished.
The B.C. ferry system issued its report last week. Another, from the Canadian Transportation Safety Board, is due soon.
Queen of the North was southbound from Prince Rupert and her normal course was down the center of Grenville Channel. After exiting the channel, the ferry would alter course 18 degrees to port for a course across Wright Sound that would avoid Gil Island. A few minutes after midnight on March, 2006, the course change did not occur.
The ferry system investigation focused on the last 14 minutes of the ship’s life. The major problem is that the two key men on duty on the bridge during those 14 minutes have refused to talk to the ferry system investigative board about what happened. A female crew member on the bridge at the time of the grounding has cooperated with the ferry investigation, but the system’s report did not reveal what she said.
Despite the extreme depth, a remote-controlled submersible recovered the ship’s voyage data recorder and the hard drive from its navigational computer. Neither showed that the normal course change was made. Newspapers have speculated about what was going on among the bridge crew when the grounding occurred. Recorded VHF radio conversations showed that music was playing in the background.
Despite the problems on the bridge, the crew of the ferry responded quickly with abandon-ship procedures. They rounded up passengers, banging on stateroom doors, and got them overboard on life rafts and rescue boats. The residents of the nearby Indian community of Hartley Bay launched a fleet of small boats and roared across the windy, choppy sound to help. A Canadian Coast Guard cutter and a commercial shrimper soon were on the scene.
After the screw-up on the bridge, everyone appeared to do their jobs well.
We still don’t know what happened. But the lesson is clear: a little inattention may cost you dearly.