Witnesses tell of lost relatives, friends

THE first five witnesses who testified in the Rabaul Queen ferry trial said relatives and friends they were travelling with perished when the ship sank off the coast of Finschhafen, Morobe, on Feb 12, 2012.
The trial against ferry owner Peter Sharp and his captain Anthony Tsiau, both charged with 172 counts of manslaughter and taking or sending an unseaworthy ship out to sea, continued at the Kokopo National Court.
Witnesses were flown in from Lae and Kimbe over the weekend.
Theresa Robert, a primary school teacher from East New Britain and Manus, said she had travelled with two cousins, Julie Tibam and Linda Kenny.
Robert said when the ship sank and she jumped out to sea to grab onto a life raft, she never sighted Tibam or Kenny. Kalau Bito travelled with her father Jezreel, elder sister Esther, younger sister Dulcie, cousins Dwynette Kit, her husband Enoch Kit and their five-year-old daughter Geseng.
Bito said Dwynette and Geseng were still missing after the rescue.
Theodore Yep boarded the ship from Buka with his cousin Lydia Moiyo on Jan 30, 2012.
He said when the ship sank, he jumped into the sea and was later rescued. He never saw Moiyo again.
Junias Naure, 25, from WNB and ENB, was travelling from Kimbe with his brother’s friend David Sap who never make it when the ship sank. Survivor, Regina Taria, from Kieta and a Seeto Kui clerk in Lae, said life jackets were available only in the mothers and children’s room.