Fiji Siren - Lost at Sea

[KathyV]

Here is the Undercurrent report on the Wave Dancer, it makes somber reading:

https://www.undercurrent.org/UCnow/dive_magazine/2005/WaveDancerTragedy200504.html

BTW, the quote below from the Undercurrent article caught my eye because we take both DAN and travel insurance for our dive vacations and I've sometimes wondered if that was overkill, but I guess not!

"...DAN insurance covered none of the deceased divers. The tragedy was not a diving accident. Hughes was insured for only $5,000,000, and after raising the Wave Dancer, less than $4,000,000 was distributed among the relatives of the twenty dead..."

Our travel insurance policy covers injury, illness, travel interruptions, theft, etc. and that may be sufficient, but the DAN insurance covers diving throughout the year - not just for one trip, and is specific for diving injuries. I understand that if you travel a lot you can get a general travel policy that covers multiple trips.

We have learned that we do not need to add "adventure travel" to our travel insurance because scuba is not classified as an adventure sport by the company we usually use (Travel Guard) but there is one "extra" that I always add to our travel insurance policy and that is "evacuation to the hospital of your choice" because we have been to some far distant places during our travels, including the 3rd world, and I want to have control over where we will receive care if something bad happens.

And although DAN does include a travel assistance component, it is primarily focused on diving accidents and injuries, so we take the "middle level" of the policies that DAN offers along with a general travel insurance policy.

During our recent trip to Little Cayman, we were surprised to discover that the local car rental agency McLaughlin's does NOT sell liability insurance to customers! They do sell collision and damage (but that may already be covered by your credit card) but not liability. There is very little traffic on the island, so it probably isn't an issue, but you are driving on the left side of the road. I have always waived the liability car insurance offered by our travel policy, preferring to get it locally, but I may have to rethink that decision!

 

[Dogbowl]

It is not the same ship, but it is back in service.

I wonder if it is now a liveaboard...

 

[Dogbowl]

Here is the Undercurrent report on the Wave Dancer, it makes somber reading:

https://www.undercurrent.org/UCnow/dive_magazine/2005/WaveDancerTragedy200504.html

BTW, the quote below from the Undercurrent article caught my eye because we take both DAN and travel insurance for our dive vacations and I've sometimes wondered if that was overkill, but I guess not!

"...DAN insurance covered none of the deceased divers. The tragedy was not a diving accident. Hughes was insured for only $5,000,000, and after raising the Wave Dancer, less than $4,000,000 was distributed among the relatives of the twenty dead..."

Our travel insurance policy covers injury, illness, travel interruptions, theft, etc. and that may be sufficient, but the DAN insurance covers diving throughout the year - not just for one trip, and is specific for diving injuries. I understand that if you travel a lot you can get a general travel policy that covers multiple trips.

We do not need to add adventure travel to our travel insurance because scuba is not classified as an adventure sport bythe company we usually use (TravelGuard) but there is one "extra" that I always add to our travel insurance policy and that is "evacuation to the hospital of our choice" because we have been to some far distant places during our travels and I want to have control over where we receive care if something bad happens.

And although DAN does include a travel assistance component, it seems to be primarily focused on diving accidents and injuries, so we take the "middle level" of the policies that DAN offers along with a general travel insurance policy.

During our recent trip to Little Cayman, we were surprised to discover that the local car rental agency McLaughlin's will NOT sell liability insurance to customers! They will sell collision and damage (but that may already be covered by your credit card) but not liability. There is very little traffic on the island, so it probably isn't an issue, but you are driving on the left side of the road. I have always waived the liability car insurance offered by our travel policy, preferring to get it locally, but I may have to rethink that decision!

I read that and it was so so sad. The passengers drowned in the ship. They were unable to get out. I got nightmares after reading that.

I double-up and triple-up on insurance sometimes. I read the policies and their inclusions and exclusions and I get a headache. And this is the type of work (legal not insurance-specific) that I do on a daily basis!

 

[Wookie]

It isn't a dive boat. Ferry IIRC.

 

[JVos]

I think a friend of mine was on the boat in Fiji. Pretty sure he caused it to sink...bad luck follows him.

 

[KathyV]

...Considering the Fiji Siren is flying a Mongolian Flag that should give you a hint to the answers to your questions. (FYI, Mongolia is like 600+ miles from any ocean/sea!) What legit live aboard would register their vessel in MONGOLIA ??? !!!

I've lost the link but I saw a comment on facebook that there hasn't been much local coverage of the sinking which seems odd if it is true. And I don't know anything about ship registries, but the screenshot below is popping up on the web and shows that the Fiji Siren sailed under the flag of Mongolia, and that is also a bit surprising - at least to me, I wonder why? The boat was based in Fiji and the company is based in Thailand...

Sorry @scubafanatic, I didn't see that you had already remarked about the unusual Mongolian registry for the Fiji Siren. I know that Fiji, Thailand, and Mongolian are all Asian, but I can't figure out why a boat that sails in Fiji and is operated by a company located in Thailand should be registered in Mongolia? Unless maybe the boat's owner is Mongolian?

 

[KathyV]

No, it gets better. They hit the same "shipping container" in 2015, according to their Facebook page. Or was that a reef?

Don't most passenger boats have technology to help them avoid hitting sub-surface things, like sonar or depth finders or fish finders or something? How reliable are these devices?

 

[KathyV]

Well this explains a lot!

The NY Times article at the link below is from 2004, but it clearly explains the reasons that a seafaring company might want to register their vessels with a land-locked country like Mongolia in order to get a "flag of convenience".

You can read the entire article at the link below but I have excerpted and bolded some interesting passages.


http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/02/business/landlocked-mongolia-s-seafaring-tradition.html

Landlocked Mongolia's Seafaring Tradition

By JAMES BROOKE

JULY 2, 2004, New York Times

Mongolia, the world's largest landlocked country, with its capital almost 1,000 miles from an ocean beach, is the latest entry in the business of flags of convenience. With Mongolia's red, yellow and blue colors now flying on 260 ships at sea, this unlikely venture is part business, part comedy and part international intrigue.

''We earned the treasury about $200,000 last year,'' Bazarragchaa Altan-Od, head of the Maritime Administration, said, slightly tense for his first interview with the world press. ''We have 20 to 30 new registrations every month. The number is increasing.''...

…The registry opened for business in February, 2003. Perhaps to play down any negative connotations of being landlocked, the glossy color brochure of the Mongolia Ship Registry shows Mongolia surrounded on three sides by a light blue blob that, on closer inspection, turns out to be China…

…Critics say that safety is the victim of an international shipping system that leaves enforcement of international rules to the countries that register vessels and to the ports where they drop anchor.

Countries ''can become 'flag nations' for ships, usually by employing an agent who 'certifies' that the ships carrying a Mongolia flag, for example, meet all the international rules,'' said Jim Carrier, author of ''The Ship and the Storm,'' an account of the sinking of the Fantome in Hurricane Mitch, in 1998 off Honduras. Thirty-one sailors drowned with the Fantome, a yacht flagged by Equatorial Guinea.

''Shipping companies simply send a check to a country, and, in return, get the paperwork to allow a ship with a Mongolian flag to go into any port in the world,'' Mr. Carrier, a trans-Atlantic sailor, said in a phone interview.

''Usually these ships avoid the tougher countries, however, and roam the world uninspected, leaking, polluting, sinking time bombs for the sailors aboard.'...

...Mr. Langewiesche, whose ''Outlaw Sea'' came out in the spring, cautioned, ''It is important not to draw a mechanical linkage between dangerous ships and this flag.''

''Given the range of flags available, those interested in Mongolia are not interested in maintaining ships, in sailing well,'' he said. ''But to say that Mongolians should not have ships flying their flag is also unfair.''

 

[Wookie]

Don't most passenger boats have technology to help them avoid hitting sub-surface things, like sonar or depth finders or fish finders or something? How reliable are these devices?

No. That technology is new and not so reliable. And if it were a shipping container, which I would want to see a picture of before I'd believe it, they float so close to the surface I expect you'd lose the sonar in surface clutter.

 

[rhwestfall]

depth finders are only good at telling you how deep it was when you hit....