Panel data provided by Madison's Canadian Lumber Reporter.

Sinking Raises Many Questions: One Man's Opinion

By 250 News

-by Ben Meisner

The most important question remaining in the sinking of the Queen of the North is this;  who made the mistake that caused the ship to run into Gil Island,  sink, and cost two lives?

So far, faced with the prospect of some very healthy law suits, little is being said.  The Transportation Safety Board  has indicated it believes it was human error.  Although  the investigation is far from over, it is difficult to  accept anything but human error given the fact the radar would have shown that the ship was seriously off course.  This  was no minor correction, it was a major miss.

If equipment had failed, why didn’t whoever was piloting the ship simply shut the craft down while they sought a solution to the problem? This one has all the ear marks of someone creating a mistake. 

The other question still in the air is the matter of the ship striking Gil Island.  Was the vessel in shallow enough water to have grounded, did someone try to steer it back into deeper water and to a certain death for the ship? 

This much we  do know.  Had the accident occurred a few miles further up the reach, out of the sight of the people of Hartley Bay and the reach of their radios, we could have been facing a mjor disaster. 

In addition, we are now learning  the crew of the ship, many of whom escaped death by precious seconds from their crew quarters below the car deck, can no longer be allowed to have their quarters in that location of a BC Ferry. 

We are all waiting for  answers.

I’m Meisner and that is one man’s opinion.

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