The Tribune

By ERIC WIBERG

Sea Hauler was owned and operated by Captain Allan Russell Sr of Cat Island served the island between 1989 and 2011. Around that time, it grounded and abandoned off Long Island. She served Smith’s Bay, Old Bight and New Bight, in south Cat Island. In 2003, this vessel was involved in a fatal collision with the United Star in an event which resulted in four deaths, an amputation and dozens injured. More than two decades later, no public report, explanation, analysis, apology or significant payment or assistance have been issued. It is still a sensitive issue for survivors and their families and a stain on the reputation of the flag.

At 170 feet long and 417 gross tons, United Star was built in Chauvin, Louisiana, by either Chauvin Shipbuilding or Portier Shipyard and is 36.5’ wide, and can load 500 tons. It is a Ro-Ro cargo vessel with accommodation and bridge aft made of steel. She was owned and operated in The Bahamas by Hanna from launch in 1996 to 2007. The ship has served The Bahamas on long-haul voyages to Mayaguana, Acklins, Crooked Island, Long Cay and Inagua, and was the other vessel involved in the collision with the Sea Hauler in 2003 which claimed four fatalities and injured 25. She sailed as far south as Inagua and was sold to Honduran interests and named the AJ Transport or Coimar Transport. Over his career some of Tom Hanna’s trading firms have gone under but he has managed to rebuild under new names, sometimes with the same vessel. In 2003 her master was Capt Rodney Miller.

The Prime Minister termed the deadly collision a tragedy of national importance. A committee was formed to investigate the incident. That report, through a government-appointed Wreck Commission, was presented to the Minister of Transport and Aviation on January 4, 2005, however efforts by this author to unearth it have so far been unsuccessful. The incident led to a number of lawsuits, including at least nine civil actions filed in the Supreme Court against the government.

On August 2, 2003, the 2003 summed up the initial accident in this report “Bahamas boat crash kills four: A collision between a cargo ship and ferry boat off the Bahamian island of Eleuthera has killed four people and injured at least 16, the US Coast Guard says. The Sea Hauler ferry was carrying about 195 people on its regular route to Cat Island from Nassau when it collided at around 130 am with the cargo vessel, United Star which had a crew of six. Coast Guard rescuers, the Royal Bahamas Defence Force [RBDF] and the Royal Bahamas Police searched for about seven unaccounted for people in deep waters nine miles southwest of Eleuthera island. Sixteen people were evacuated by helicopter from the scene to medical facilities in the Bahamian capital, Nassau, officials said. US Coast Guard units sent out ships, an airplane and helicopters from Florida to aid rescue efforts. The identities and nationalities of the victims have not been released. Bahamas’ Central Detective Unit is now investigating the collision between the 98’ ferry and the 178’ cargo vessel.”

I recall watching a perfect capable mailboat sit at Spring Point Acklins for days as owners tried to navigate the religious politics of the various islands, unable to work Fridays in some ports, and Sundays – even Saturdays - in others. After spending a night and despite having bought a ticket I simply left the vessel, preferring to walk to the airport and take my chances. Being a mailboat owner is fraught with challenges, some foreseeable, others not. We need only look at this accident, as well the ramming and sinking of Tropic Breeze off Berry Islands (also no published report by Bahamian authorities, though it was wholly in Bahamian waters, both vessels left Clifton at roughly the same time), to realize that accidents will continue to happen.

The United Star/Sea Hauler tragedy was particularly egregious because the officers had tools to avoid it – radar, radios. The Captain Roberts, though on its maiden voyage, had no radio to learn of the hurricane bearing down on it. Nowadays the tools for collision avoidance are even better, however they are useless without a well-rested, trained and alert person operating them. Decades ago, when I set out on 10,000 miles of mailboat voyages, I may have thought it just unusual to be woken up by a mailboat’s erratic motion, to wander into the bridge to find it abandoned, then voluntarily take the helm, one captain to another, until the skipper returned from repairing machinery. As we all know now, there is nothing charming about a vessel without a lookout slamming into another one also steaming blind in the night.

As for the fall-out from the Sea Hauler/United Star collision, we can leave aside the contentious facts, errors, or omissions and look at the perception. To this day – more than 21 years on - the official report is not readily available. Victims were left in the dark for months, then years. It is during times like those that citizens rely on leaders for decisive, compassionate action. Yet families felt compelled to protest in the streets. The perception given was that authorities were hiding information and dragging their feet to avoid compensating victim’s families. And yet admiralty law is for the most part very settled and straightforward: based on British common law, in which virtually every kind of maritime casualty has been adjudicated and comparatively few new cases change it. Handing of this case illustrates how much we all stand to learn from the humble mailboat fleet. It is flawed, and yet we are all in some way – until you can pipe automobiles, fly goats and crabs, or send bricks by cable – reliant upon.

We can also learn from how the October 2015 sinking of the El Faro in Bahamian waters was handled: again, despite the many facts which appear to weigh against them, the ship owners and government regulators have been out in front of the media, settling quickly with family members, keeping the ball moving and the public informed. In today’s multi-media, information-driven world, where what even the disempowered say online can be empowering, perception is extremely important.

As for the future, it is virtually certain that other maritime fatalities will strike the mailboat fleet again. If we could outlaw shipwrecks, or car accidents, it would have been done. From casualties can flow positive change; after the Yarmouth Castle, owned by a Canadian resident in Nassau, caught fire off the Berry Islands in November 1965 and 90 people perished, Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) regulations were overhauled. As a leading flag-state provider, with roughly 1,600 seagoing vessels registered to the Bahamas totaling about 51 million tons, making it sixth in the world with four percent of the world fleet, The Bahamas arguably has a special duty towards its domestic fleet, and has the specialised resources at its disposal to investigate and transparently report on casualties. Prevention, analysis and transparent reportage: would that our understanding of events that night were as clear at the night sky no one apparently was looking through.