NMSA: Maintenance on Rabaul Queen poor

By LESLIE OMARO in LAE
THE Commission of Inquiry into the sinking of the mv Rabaul Queen was told that maintenance work carried out on the vessel was very poor.
The commission of inquiry headed by commissioner judge Warwick Andrew held its third day of hearing at the International Hotel in Lae yesterday.
Officer in charge of National Maritime Safety Authority office in Madang Carl Kamang told counsel assisting the commission Mal Varitimos that there were four processes of survey done on the vessel’s equipment, machinery, radio and hull.
But he said there was no machinery survey carried out on the vessel since October last year until it sank.  
“Apart from the survey report the maintenance regime of the mv Rabaul Queen was poor,” he said.
He told Varitimos he only inspected the vessel when it was anchored in Madang with two other ships, the Kimbe Queen and Morobe Queen also operated by Rabaul Shipping.
He said the maintenance on the two ship was also poor.
He said there were life jackets on all the decks of the Rabaul Queen but were locked.
Kamang also told the commission that three periodic inspections of the vessels were carried out and endorsed on May 21, 2008.
He produced a copy of a survey certificate which showed that the maximum number of persons allowed on Rabaul Queen was 310 – plus 10 safe manning crew.
NMSA chief surveyor and inspector Rony Naigu told Varitimos that according to a report provided to him there were only 10 life jackets on board the Rabaul Queen.
He said the inspection report was done by Peter Sharp and his contractors and the last survey on life jackets and life rafts was done in 2006.
He also revealed to the commission that the captain of the Rabaul Queen Anthony Mathatsir Tsiu was involved in the sinking of two vessels – mv Glomairs and mv Kris.
Naigu said Glomairs was operated by Coastal Shipping and Kris was operated by one of Peter Sharp’s companies New Guinea Pacific Line.
He also told the commission of how Tsiu did not want to comply with International Maritime Dangerous Goods Code (IMDG) under Class 3 back in 2010.
 “I was doing a routine inspection on a coastal liner and saw Rabaul Queen was taking on passengers and loading dangerous goods.
“I summoned the captain to remove the dangerous goods which contained two gases – acetylene and oxygen
“I told him to separate the gases and not to load them together.
“He came to realise he was loading the passengers with the dangerous goods and instead of listening to me  he got his cellphone and called his boss Peter Sharp.
“We exchanged some words and Peter asked me why his ship was been delayed. I told him he must comply with the IMDG code and separate the gases certain distance away or remove
them and still sail but he was still adamant.
“I told the manager for Rabaul Shipping in Lae  John Vaika  to get the dangerous goods off.
“He agreed to take the dangerous goods off and the ship sailed.
“Sharp got summons on me and we went to court but I went to Vanimo.
“The charges were for the delay of the ship for one hour and he wanted me to explain the delay,” Naigu said.