Colin Henthorne - The Queen of the North Disaster: The Captains Story

The Queen of the North Disaster

The Queen of the North Disaster

The Captain s Story

Coli n Henthorne

Copyright 2016 Coli n Henthorne

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All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without prior permission of the publisher or, in the case of photocopying or other reprographic copying, a licence from Access Copyright, .

Harbour Publishing Co. Ltd.

PO Box 219, Madeira Park, BC, V0N 2H0

www.harbourpublishing.com

Edited by Audre y McClellan

Indexed by Kyl a Shauer

Printed and bound i n Canada

Printed on acid-free, FSC -certifie d stock

Back cover photo by Jim Thorne/Wett Coast/Flickr

Cover design by Anna Comfort OKeeffe

Text design by She d Simas

Harbour Publishing acknowledges the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, which last year invested $153 million to bring the arts to Canadians throughout the country. We also gratefully acknowledge financial support from the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund and from the Province of British Columbia through the BC Arts Council and the Book Publishing Ta x Credit.

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing i n Publication

Henthorne, Colin, author

The Queen of the North disaster : the captains story / Coli n Henthorne.

Includes bibliographical references an d index.

Issued in print and electroni c formats.

ISBN 978-1-55017-761-9 (paperback).-- ISBN 978-1-55017-724-4 (html)

. Queen of the North (Ferry).. Shipwrecks--Britis h Columbia.

. Shipwrecks--Inside Passage.. Ferries--Accidents--Britis h Columbia.

. Ferries--Accidents--Inside Passage. I. Title.

G530.Q45H45 2016910.916433C2016-905444-6

C2016-905445-4

This book is dedicated to the memory of my parents and the memory of Howard Ehrlich, to my family, friends, and shipmates, and to all who have stood b y me.

You cant, in sound morals, condemn a man for taking care of his own integrity. It is his clea r duty.

Joseph Conrad, A Persona l Record

Route of the Queen of th e North

List o f Abbreviations

2/O second officer or secon d mate

4/O fourth officer or fourt h mate

ABS American Bureau o f Shipping

ARPA Automatic Radar Plotting Aid (a computer attached to th e radar)

BHP brak e horsepower

BRM Bridge Resource Management (a maritime version of aviations Cockpit Resource Management or Crew Resourc e Management)

CPP controllable pitc h propeller

CRM Cockpit Resource Management; later changed to Crew Resourc e Management

DI Divisiona l Inquiry

ECS electronic char t system

ETA expected time o f arrival

FRC Fast Respons e Craft

GPS Global Positioning System (satellite-based navigation system that can be integrated with the electronic char t system)

IMO International Maritim e Organization

ISM International Safety Management Code (international standard for the safe management and operation of ships and for pollutio n prevention)

JRCC Joint Rescue Co-ordination Centre ( JRCC Victoria is one of three centres in Canada and is responsible for Air-Sea Rescue in British Columbia, the Yukon, and up to nautical miles/, kilometres offshore in th e Pacific)

MCTS Marine Communications and Traffic Services (Canadian Coast Guard service that provides vessel traffic services and waterway management, broadcasts weather and safety information, and co-ordinates marine safety communications with the Joint Rescue Co-ordinatio n Centre)

NASA National Aeronautics and Space Administration ( US )

NTSB National Transportation Safety Board ( US )

OOW officer of th e watch

OSC on-scene co-ordinator

Q M quartermaster

QM1 Quartermaster Karen Briker (term used in the Transportation Safety Boards report on the sinking of the Queen of th e North )

QN Queen of th e North

SEN Simulated Electronic Navigation (training in the use of electronic navigation systems and instruments; includes compute r simulations)

SOLAS International Convention for Safety of Life a t Sea

TSB Transportation Safet y Board

VDR Voyage Dat a Recorder

VHF Very Hig h Frequency

WCAT Workers Compensation Appeal Tribunal (a body that hears appeals of Workers Compensation Boar d decisions)

WCB Workers Compensation Board ( AK A WorkSafe BC )

Note t o Readers

Just after midnight on March , 2006 , the passenger ship the Queen of the North struck an underwater ledge on the Gil Island shore of Wright Sound on the British Columbia coast. Unlike most ships that have gone aground, she did not stay aground. Striking the ledge at a speed of . knots, she ran clear across it, tearing holes in the ships bottom and along the starboard side, and ripping out the propellers. Her momentum carried her on into deep water, where no force on earth could keep her afloat. In just over an hour she sank to the bottom of Wright Sound, , feet ( metres) below the surface.

In contrast to most sinkings, the ship was evacuated with no outside assistance. Two passengers went missing and remain missing to thi s day.

The sinking of the Queen of the North was one of the top news stories in Canada for 2006 . I was the captain. This is m y story.

Chapter 1

Flagship

Until the incident described in this book, I was what could safely be called a career mariner. I got off to an early start. As we were growing up on the water, my father taught my brothers and me to handle boats under oars, sails, and power. He also taught us how to build, maintain, and repair boats. More formal training came my way as a sea cadet from age twelve to eighteen. By the time I was twenty-one I had my first command, an -foot (-metre) training vessel. I worked for various outfits after that, towing logs and operating other small coastal craft. At age twenty-two I joined the Coast Guard and spent eight years there, starting as a deckhand before becoming a seaman/diver, then a first mate, and, ultimately, captain. After leaving the Coast Guard I worked in the petroleum industry, serving in two different offshore exploration vessels and two different icebreakers in the Arctic. Along the way I did such things as operating a hovercraft at the Expo site in Vancouver, working as mate and master on tugboats towing barges on the British Columbia coast and up the Fraser and Pitt Rivers, and spending some time with the Department of Fisheries.

In 1987 I was looking for something steadier, with opportunity for advancement, so I applied for a job with the biggest employer in coastal waters, BC Ferries. To get on with them I had to go back to being a deckhand, working on a casual basis and accumulating seniority. Except for a short stint working out of Tsawwassen, I worked in BC Ferries Northern Service on the