Too soon to forget Feb 2

By ELLEN TIAMU
IT was just after 7am on Thursday, Feb 2 when the passenger ferry mv Rabaul Queen sank in heavy weather off Bonga on the Finschhafen coast in Morobe province.
Its last port of call was Kimbe on the island of New Britain the afternoon before.
Although the weather seemed to be closing in then, many passengers who boarded the Rabaul Queen had travelled often on it and trusted that the boat would arrive in Lae safely. There was no reason to question why this voyage could be different.
But as the Rabaul Queen headed towards the northern end of the island, strong winds began churning the waves up, tossing the ship the whole night as it turned south through Umboi Island into the Dampier Strait.
When the first light of morning broke on that fateful Thursday, the ship was near the Finschhafen coast with Lae just a few hours away.
Until now, it is unknown exactly how many passengers were on the ship when it sank.
Survivors estimate there were more than 500 people including the crew on board.
Most of the passengers were students and teachers returning to their educational institutions after their Christmas break.
However, Rabaul Shipping who operate the vessel has produced a manifest with 384 passengers on board the ship who were travelling from Rabaul to Lae via Kimbe.
Australia’s rescue coordination centre was quick to respond to a distress signal from the Rabaul Queen at 7.25am, communicating immediately with the PNG Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre in Port Moresby.
Search and rescue operations began as soon as word got to the provincial disaster office in Lae with the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) signalling 15 merchant vessels in the vicinity to head to the area.
A number of Australian aircraft, including two specialist search and rescue aircraft, and local helicopters from Lae assisted in the search. 
Survivors, totalling 246, were rescued by five merchant vessels over a space of seven hours.
No more were to be found.
The ship’s chief engineer and a captain on one of the company’s other vessels are among the missing. 
Following the tragedy, there have been calls from the public for the PNG National Maritime Safety Authority to ensure there is better safety at sea.
On Saturday, two days after the Rabaul Queen disappeared into waters over a kilometre deep, three adult female bodies were found further south towards the Northern province. The next day, the body of a four-year-old boy was found.
All four have been identified by relatives and repatriated to West New Britain, (two female), New Ireland (one female) and East New Britain (boy) for burial.
Rabaul Shipping has issued two statements since the tragedy.
On the day of the sinking, it shut its offices in Lae, Kimbe, Rabaul and Buka. Initially, company owner Peter Sharp was to have turned up to give an address at the disaster office in Lae but failed to show up.
The relatives of two missing crew members are much aggrieved that the company, or Sharp, has not responded to them in any way.
A commission of inquiry is now looking into the incident to determine if any rules were broken among other issues.
Today marks one month after the tragedy and the saying, time is a healer, may not ring true for many survivors and the families of those who perished.
Papua New Guineans are resilient people though and many survivors have opted to return to their families, home provinces and educational institutions.
Others, though, have found the ordeal too much and still need time and professional counselling to see them return to normalcy with life.
Sharp was forced into the open when another of his ships, mv Kimbe Queen, struck a reef in Bialla waters 20 days after the Rabaul Queen went down. He flew from Rabaul to the scene to direct operations to refloat the vessel which is now being scrutinised by NMSA officials before it would be allowed to sail again.