Skipper Not Guilty - negligent homicide (and GBH).

Interesting trial result some 12 - 18 months after a fatal collision here between a 65ft alloy lobster vessel returning to port - and a recreational 15 ft glass runabout at anchor, fishing, - in which the rec boat skippers 5 year old son was killed.

The Marine Safety Authorities believed they had sufficient cause to bring charges of negligent homicide (I think thats what they called it on the TV news) against the skipper for the death of the little boy, and additional charges of GBH (Grievious Bodily Harm) against the Lobster Vessel skipper in relation to the rec boat skipper who suffered a punctured lung, in the collision that claimed his sons life.

The jury found the 65 year old lifetime professional lobster fishing skipper - not guilty on all counts. (Fair enough!..12 of his fellow men have decided!).

His defence?

Reortedly - He didn't see them until the last second & claims he was keeping an adequate lookout.
Reportedly claimed their were whitecaps on the waves, and the sun glare was in his eyes, and the rec vessel hull was white below the gunnel (and red above), and he just didn't see them fishing at anchor a few hundred meters from shore, while he was doing ~ 20 knots on the way home.

Time was about 11.30 Am, seas were FLAT, sun was basically directly overhead (Sun Glare?) according to other vessel operators out there at the time that I heard from.

Press reports at the time speculated about the skipper being on the rear deck with the hatches open etc inspecting an engine problem, with the vessel on autopilot. The vessel had radar, from what I remember seeing...haven't read or heard whether it was switched on or not. Ditto with the auto pilot...who really knows other than the skipper and MAYBE his deckhand?.
Don't know what the deck hand testified in that regard, if anything.

There are a LOT of issues about such boats - and all the reqiuirements on the skippers - with regard to all the state laws about catch size etc.

The realities I think possibly are:-

Skippers have licenses worth usually in the vicinity of $3Million and vessels usually in the $1M bracket, If they get 3 "Black marks" against them from Sate Fisheries dept, for consigning undersized or breeding females to the factory in a lifetime of fishing, - they forfeit (lose) that lifetime license!!.

Realities are - that hired deckhands, bait, haul and stack the traps - and gauge the catch for size, (after all - the skipper has a mandated responsibility - to be skippering the vessel, keeping an adequate watch etc).

If a dissatisfied deckhand is going to leave the employ of a skipper - he only has to deliberately consign a full basket of undersize & or "setose" (breeding) females to the factory - to basically cost the skipper his life times investement in license and boat. (And gets paid his wages on a % of the catch - so has an $ "incentive" to so consign the occasional (or more) small lobster if he thinks he can get away with it !!! (Not every lobster is checked by the Fisheries authorities - they pull randomn crates a few days a week at the factory...just to keep an eye on each license holder. Getting caught out is a hit or miss - play the odds game.

Skippers really can't afford NOT to keep a first hand watch on their catch...which of necessity takes them away from their designated role of skippering the vessel. It's not like they can "re gauge" a ton or so of catch at the end of the day - just to be sure..they have other responsibilies, such as filing in catch record books log books etc etc.

Some skippers - on boats I've worked on as a consultant to the industry, actually drive, operate the hydraulic winch, (some grapple the floats as well if working only one deckhand), AND sort the catch (Gauge the lobsters for size), while their deckhand baits and stacks ropes - floats and pots and re sets pots in lines.

How does a skipper - realistically maintain an adequate watch - with his head in the "cacka" box (water filled Sorting tray) or while throwing a grapple at floats, - operating a winch etc?

Fishing or skippering the boat - whats the Skippers REAL job?

If he does his 'real' job, over a lifetime of fishing - 3 mistakes with catch size by a prcession of deckhands (one fella I know had 16 different deckhands over the 8 month season) put him outta business. Imagine traing a greenhorn deckhand - on your own as skipper? Some don't know one end of a lobster from the other..let alone how to handle / stack ropes, stack pots etc.

My young son did his first year as a deckhand last season on a lobster boat, with 2 deckhands fishing 120 pots.

On his 2nd day - the other deckhand quit - leaving him & the skipper to fish 120 pots on their own for the rest of the week.

The next 3 days were 12 hours days, with the skipper running from wheelhouse - out onto deck, grappling floats and gauging catch and even stacking his own pots at the end of the day...(reckoned byer the end of the day the young fellers arms were like McGyverys go go gadget extendo arms, he would lean back to lift the pot to stack it, and his arms would stretch, and the pot stay on the deck!

Young feller said he could scratch the underside of his feet in bed at night without sitting up...and that the backs of his hands were scratched from dragging on the ground like neanderthal man when he walked at the end of the day!

To his credit he stuck it out!

back to the issue...

Are their too many state Fishery "laws" that are industry related - that take otherwise good safe skippers away from theior primary role of skippering the boat - and make them accountable with their livelihoods - for mistakes that kids off the street with no experience - working as deck hands, can cost them?

Is there a better way?

Somethings wrong here - we can't just mow boats down, killing innocent kids in the process and then say "I didn't see em", and that be sufficient defence?

Surley?

This ol fella - is very very experienced..a lifetime at sea doing the same job - in probably 5 or 6 different (bigger & bigger - more modern boats), and yet - he came up short on the day.

What REALLY happened??. (and will anyone ever really know?).

Having worked on such boats, where on one occasion I had to take the helm, and put her in gear, hit the throttles and steer into a broadside breaking wave that the skipper never saw comming because he was sorting catch... I KNOW for a fact - that current industry practices are going to kill more innocents (whether the skipers themselves, their young deckhands or other users of the ocean), and yet an opportunity to address such issues - which this case should clearly have probably done, seems to have evaded us this time.

Repotedly, the skipper claimed - he immediately threw both engines into reverse gear at or seconds before impact. The vessel did reportedly have one badly damaged gearbox after the fact and also one seized engine...however....there were also reports at the time - that the skipper had been down the rear deck with the engine hatch open, running on auto pilot..and was trying to diagnose a propulsion problem in one engine...:?:

I'd really love to read thre court transcripts...

There must be a better way than this.....surely to goodness!

Opinions?

Cheers!

 

Trouty, reading your story intensively, I must say, that I have, very, very very mixed feelings reading the defense of the skipper of the lobster boat.
On the other hand, the sportsfisher isn't free of some blame too.

What I am going to say, might not sound only offensive but also insulting. Unfortunately I have some experience with fishermen, how they behave in port and how they behave in the locks and at last, you may say that they are not really the most attending if some weekenders have the misfortune to be in the same lock as this pack. They are always in a hurry, and always busy of doing things with their tackle, nets, winches, you name exept keeping watch. They run their engines full power to keep the boats at their place when they are in the sealocks - as some coastercaptains do as well, often, they don't send a man f'rd to tie a spring. Bowthruster suffices.
At open seat they rely on their radarplotter to warn them in case of an upcoming collision. If nobody is on the bridge, that will be difficult.
Sometimes it works, sometimes not, and than we have this kind of accidents.
A wave that went unnoticed by the helmsman, if there is any awake, makes each year headlines in the local press "Fishing ship suddenly disappeared" ...

That sort of thing.....

I am extremely cautious when entering Dutch fisherman ports, no - any fisherman port.

If I spot fishermen at night (or day) I make the widest berth possible. Never, never I wil lbypass a fisherman at close range.

If they are fishing, they do not attend the bridge. When they do a pull, they go below deck for a nap and the helmsman stretches out in his chair if' he is on the bridge.

I talked to a tankercaptain who had parts of a fishingnet around the anchor of his 125.000 ton vessel.

Coming from Norway, as it turned out later, he had hit a fishingvessel that was making a pull in the shipping lane (not very wise, even illegal); 7 men went under. Nobody at the tanker had heard nor felt somthing happening. Nobody was on the bridge, except the watchman who was playing with his gameboy; the tanker went with 18 knots under autopilot. Radar plotter was on and had beeped, but the watchman was occupied with his gameboy and did not hear the beeps from the radar.

If this lobsterfisher - under the circumstances as are described - did not sea this little sportsfisher, his license as a captain should be immediately withdrawn. I prefer a drunk captain, that no captain at all.

That is the other threat rather than pirates nowadays, unattended ships.....
ships with no visible watch.

What can you do?

Keep a lookout all the time. Keep on your VHF switched on channel 16.
Calculate that a ship on the horizon needs between 30 and 45 minutes to be with you.
Don't funboat (fooling around) in shippinglanes where professional traffic has priority.
Have a pair of binoculars at hand in busy shipping lanes such as Dover Strait.
Don't approach large vessels. When you are to close they can't see you and their displacement might suck you into their wave - and that is dangerous.

Hitting a boat at anchor, specifically close to the shore, is in most countries a crime.

Remember that catamaran sailor Henk de Velde rammed in the middle of the ocean a Russian freighter (that saved him afterwards) - ships are everywhere unexpected.
Never think: "here is no traffic"......

 

So the only ships that belong on waters traveled over or by commerical ships , are to be other commerical ships. Sounds right to me . Let him off free. Pleasure craft have no right to be on the same waters. -----------------------The lobster captain should now sue the pleasure boat and collect all legal fees and any damage to his boat paint.-------He is the one who has been wronged by the jerks at anchor.

 

Cyclops old buddy do I detect a hint of sarcasm there? heavens above how can this be? The poor old fishing skipper was only doing what is Gods ordination for fishing skippers - steaming around the worlds Oceans with little or no lookout at full speed and little care or training.

Maybe just maybe if the skipper gets of his fat arse and trusts his crew a little they may trust and help him! There's some good fishing crews out there who only ask a little trust and respect and they'll work till they drop, 'cos the sea is in their blood (the money helps!). to be fair most Skippers (Note capital 'S' for these guys they deserve it!) actually do trust their crews and NEVER have any problems, tis the bad ones who don't

 

Well stated Wally.

 

No excuses!

I think the guy should lose his license. For neglegence there should be NO EXCUSE. By giving this guy a pass they have now telegraphed, loud and clear, "let nothing get in the way of commerse (greed)". Nothing!

The trouble is is that once you let one bad actor through, all the others will have to copy his poor ship keeping techniques and become bad themselves. Good skippers will get 'competed out' by bad. Poor ship keeping techniques are simply cheaper than good ones. Good crew cost more than bad crew.

I supose this merry-go-round of folly will continue until they (the bad skippers who have, by now put all the good ones out of business) start ramming one another. Or, failing that, they have the horrendous misfortune of sinking a senator's, a congressman's, or, even more unfortunate, a movie star's yacht.

Imagine if commercial air liners started ramming private planes.

To let the bad off is, in my estimation, the same as punishing the good.

Bob

 

The skipper of the fishing boat isn't done, yet. I am sure that he will still face a civil suit. He can't lose his liscence, but maybe and hopefully his boat.

jason

 

Thanks for the positive note on a depressing accident.

 

we also have to ask ourselves just how many times this has possibly happened topeople that have just managed to ge out of the way in time or the 'skippers' (inverted if they arent fulfilling their duties)just manage to hear the radar while addressing the task in hand.

if you cant talk on a mobile phone while driving and watching the road,granted slightly more traffic,but still relevant,you shouldnt be allowed to leave a boat on autopilot and think it can drive itself.

if an airline pilot did the same,perhaps making a coffee due to lack of hostesses or because he gets more money if he does it himself,and plowed into the side of another passenger jet....you get the picture.

everyone makes mistakes,but there is no excuse for a trained experienced 'skipper' no negate his responsibilities and kill a young boy.

 

Greg,
What kind of boat is the "Avatar" in the small picture next to your name in the header? Is there a larger photo somewhere? Sam

 

Looks like one of the Lake Windemere steam launches. http://www.steamboat.co.uk/

 

I think you're right! Thanks, Sam