The Sinking of the Princess Ashika

It’s been a sad and frustrating few days here in Ha’apai. One of the inter-island cargo and passenger boats that most Tongans and tourists rely on to travel to and from various islands within the country and that all cargo is transported on, sank two nights ago. The Princess Ashika, as it was called, was on its way to Pangai, the capital of Ha’apai when it sank around midnight. Some of the men who were on the top deck were able to jump overboard, some into life boats, and were picked up by the other ferry, the Pulupaki, and brought to Ha’afeva and Pangai.

Everything we’d heard up to that point had been on the radio, which wasn’t horribly informative or precise. The news kept reporting that there were only 79 people aboard, including a 30 person crew, but everyone in Tonga knew that was not the case. Initially reports said that only 27 people were missing; now that number is up to 85 and will probably increase. Most of the surviving passengers who were brought to Pangai were not on the official ship’s manifest, since not everyone who rode bought tickets, and some who did bought them at the wharf, not the office, where no record of name is taken. Everyone has been in a frenzy these past few days trying to figure out who was actually on the boat and missing, and lots of families in this area are still waiting.

The worst part, by far, of all of this is that no children have been found yet, and they are not even sure how many children were on the boat, as children never require tickets. They’ve also only found one woman. Typically, the women and kids go down to the lower two decks and cabins to sleep (the ferries usually cross at night from Tonga) since it’s much warmer and more comfortable, and the men stay up on the decks smoking and talking, or sleep on the second level. When I rode the ferry back from Nuku’alofa I sat on the top deck to help with the seasickness, but it was terribly cold being completely exposed to the wind. Apparently, the ship sank very quickly, and the thinking is that the women and children were trapped below and were never able to get out of the boat.

I went down to the wharf on Thursday when the Pulupaki landed with the survivors, and I’ve never seen the wharf so crowded. Most of the island was there trying to figure out who was getting off the boat, crying, and gossiping. The entire hospital and police staffs came down and to take care of the survivors and take records of names. I was looking for a woman and a child for a volunteer and his friends in Vava’u- the feeling of helplessness as I went around to all the nurses trying to get answers was overwhelming, especially when we all realized no children had been on the rescue boat. A JYCA volunteer (the Japanese equivalent to Peace Corps) who worked for the shipping company was also on the ship as a crew member, and is still missing.

The Tongan government has asked New Zealand and Australia for air assistance to continue searching and divers to try and bring bodies up from the wreckage. The radio said they arrived at 11pm last night, and are presumably out there today, although the weather is terrible. The Royal New Zealand Airforce has also been here since Thursday and has taken over most of the operations.

There are a lot of things I’m upset and frustrated about from this, but the biggest cause is the lack of responsibility that allows the government to continue to get old used boats second hand while they wait for another country to give them a new one (the Princess Ashika was acquired from Fiji to replace the ‘Olovaha, the old boat that broke down every other week; they are waiting for a new boat that Japan has promised to donate initially for 2010, now in 2011). The radio new has also been terribly uninformative, throwing out worthy quotes such as the reason that there is only one woman survivor is because “women are weak and need to be taken care of.”

More than that, it’s just so sad. People here can’t afford the absurdly inflated flight prices, which leaves them with no option other than the ferries. Everyone here is just worried and upset- it’s going to be a rough week.

http://www.matangitonga.to/article/tonganews/outerislands/20090808_ashika_85missing.shtml