shipping news

  Word at the café is . . .

Naturally there will be much speculation swirling around the sinking of the Queen of the North. So let’s begin . . .

by kevin potvin

The Queen of the North, which now sits at the bottom of the ocean off the BC coast, possibly with two bodies still aboard, was apparently the subject of a potential sale from BC Ferries Corp to a private company that would also purchase rights to that sailing route.

The particular sailing that ended in tragedy, they say, had on board no ordinary manifest of passengers. Executives from the potential purchasing company were on board so that executives from BC Ferries, also on board, could show off the stellar attributes of the ship and its route that were being offered up for sale—including, they’re saying, the brand new computer-controlled navigation device.

Everyone was thoroughly impressed, and they retired to the dining hall to discuss business. But the computer navigator was only a demon-stration model. No complete course to the destination had been plotted.

 The ferry hit rocks at full speed with no warning because, we’re led to believe, there was no one in the wheelhouse to notice the ship was sailing no particular course. This is what they are saying down at the café, but we know nothing over here at the newspaper.