Kiwi didn't check hull when buying Tonga ferry

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A Royal Commission of Inquiry into the sinking of the Tongan ferry, Princess Ashika, has been told the New Zealander who bought the vessel never looked into the state of its hull.

The ferry sank in August this year with the loss of 74 lives.

John Jonesse, managing director of Shipping Corporation of Polynesia (SCP) Ltd, gave evidence in Nuku'alofa, after two earlier witnesses testified to an advanced level of corrosion on the vessel, and gaping holes.

Mr Jonesse, who bought the 37-year-old ferry on behalf of the Tongan government, said he never looked into the state of the vessel's hull.

He said the ferry was in a good mechanical order when he bought it on behalf of the Tongan government and that was his main concern.

Pesi Fonua from Tonga's on-line news service Matangi Tonga told Radio New Zealand International it appeared Mr Jonesse failed to seek independent advice before buying the vessel.

He said questions had also been raised about the ferry's documentation.

Mr Jonesse told the commission the MV Princess Ashika was in good condition when it left Nuku'alofa on August 5 on its final voyage. The counsel assisting the commission, Manuel Varitimos, asked if he had actually seen the evidence given by three previous witnesses, the marine engineer Mosese Fakatou and the two welders who confirmed the advanced level of corrosion, and holes on the floor and on the sides of the vessel.

Mr Jonesse said he had seen the evidence of the three witnesses, but he stood by his conviction that the electrical and the mechanical condition of the vessel were in a good condition, which was his main concern.

The former Christchurch businessman became SCP head in April 2007, though he said that at that time he had no experience in shipping, Matangi Tonga reported.

Two years later, no one else from the Ministry of Transport or Marine and Ports accompanied him to Fiji to inspect the condition of the vessel prior to its acquisition by Government.

Transport Ministry surveyors had been asked to attend the inspection, but didn't.

Mr Jonesse told the commission that when he advised the SCP directors that Ashika was in good condition, he was referring only to the mechanical condition of the ferry and nothing else.

He had sighted a current survey certificate for the Ashika in the Patterson Shipping office, which had expired in June 2009, but he did not make a copy of the certificate and it had never been sighted by anyone else in Tonga.

Responding to a suggestion by Mr Varitimos that Mr Jonesse's advice to the SCP directors that the Ashika was in good condition "was misleading and totally incorrect," he said it was not misleading, but maybe inadequate.

The board did not demand a further survey of the vessel to be carried out.

- NZPA