Wednesday, June 25, 2008 Wenceslao: Ship sinking and luck By Bong O. Wenceslao Candid Thoughts
THE sinking of mv Princess of the Stars has evoked memories of other sea mishaps each of us must have known at one time or the other. Living in an archipelago like the Philippines and being in a place where many politicians and some public officials are often inept if they are not corrupt, each of us have our stories about ships sinking.
Consider Councilor Edgardo Labella, who survived the sinking of Princess of the Orient of Sulpicio Lines Inc., the same firm that owns Princess of the Stars. If Labella has his harrowing scenes to recall, so too a generation or two of Sulpicio owners. Sulpicio is almost the shipping industry's version of the Rough Riders: just too many accidents.
Is it just Sulpicio's luck, or lack of it (dimalas?). When I was a reporter, I heard “luck” spoken by the Cebu Metrodiscom commander who succeeded then topnotch police official Panfilo Lacson. Lacson boasted about having solved all major crimes in his stint except one. His successor recorded the opposite. Must not have been pure luck.
Superferry also almost came to blows with typhoon Frank (not Malilong but ma-lilo) but its crew considered hiding as the better part of valor. It did not sink. Was the crew lucky? A typhoon roams the country and wreaks havoc on everything in its path; that man cannot control. But there are controllable acts, like evading Frank's thrusts.
Even when you are sailing and runs smack into a typhoon, luck is not everything. In my recent trip to Camotes, I had a good conversation with an apprentice crew member while the fast craft we were in was nearing the port in Poro town. Talk eventually drifted to Lando, a storm that that came unannounced and sank a pump boat, mb Ave Maria 5.
That was just late last year. The apprentice said Lando caught them by surprise after they left the bukana in Pacijan island (San Francisco town) and headed for the more open sea going to Cebu City. The fast craft tends to hug the sea, but the waves turned gigantic. The water soared way above the fast craft’s roof, the apprentice attested.
By that time, everything was in the hands of the ship’s captain. There are certain ways of fighting big waves by controlling the direction and speed of the vessel. A good ship captain knows that, but first he mustn’t get rattled, which is a bane to the best laid strategy. Poro to Cebu is one hour plus. The fast craft reached Pier 1 after several hours.
When I rode the fast craft months after, I saw two glass panels of the vessel’s window already replaced by plywood. The force of the waves had broken the glass of a sea craft that was originally water sealed. It was like a scar of past battle. The apprentice talked about tying together two life rafts he planned to use with a friend---just in case.
The passengers clapped in relief when the fast craft was finally moored in Cebu City, and thanked the vessel’s crew. The opposite happened with mb Ave Maria 5. The difference in their fate may have been in the difference of the temperaments of their captains. Ave Maria did not slow down despite the big waves, said an old boatman.
I don’t know the percentage mix here. When a ship sinks, what is the percentage of dimalas and what is the percentage of human (crew and ship owners) folly? When a ship survives, what is the percentage of luck and what is the percentage of human (crew and ship owners) intervention?
