Captain slept as Tonga ferry flooded

As the doomed Tongan passenger ferry Princess Ashika began to flood and list, its captain slept, only waking in time to make a mayday distress call, a Royal Commission of Inquiry has heard.

A witness, Tongia Lemoto, a missionary who had worked as a mechanic on other ferries, also told of knowing hours before the sinking that the ship was in trouble.

The 37-year-old ferry sank on August 5 on a voyage from Nuku'alofa with the loss of 75 lives.

Lemoto was on the bridge for the final hour of the sinking and was asked by the Commission, at what point Captain Viliami Tuputupu came to the bridge.

"The vessel was already seriously tilted and I was standing outside the bridge. I heard someone come in to wake the captain up. And that was the only time I saw the captain go into the wheelhouse, when he was woken by this person," he said.

That was five minutes before it sank.

Lemoto said when he joined the ship in harbour he could see "a lot of rust and corrosion".

"When I was looking down at the hold, I saw the sea coming through the ... bow ramp.... The sea was coming in both sides of the ramp and also underneath the ramp."

So much water was coming in that it was moving building timber on the deck and could easily be seen for two hours before the sinking, he said.

He told the Commision that even as they were leaving Nuku'alofa, five hours before she sank, the Ashika was moving from side to side.

Lemoto said such movement was not normal.

He agreed it was caused by water coming into the cargo deck.

Lemoto said he went to the bridge and was with the chief mate Semise Pomale when a crew member came to the bridge to say water was coming in. The chief mate told him to go back to the stern where crew were using buckets and swore at the crew.

Lemoto said the rolling of the vessel was getting worse. He saw an ambulance and a Pajero on the cargo deck moving toward the front ramp.

"The Pajero, was completely immersed in the water," he told the Commission.

He stayed on the bridge listening to reports of water coming into the ship and saw a crew member go and wake up the captain five minutes before the ship sank.

"I did not see him - really see him - see what he was doing, when he went into the bridge area, but the last thing I knew was that I heard him making the mayday calls."

He said no warning was given to the passengers.

Earlier in his questioning Lemoto said that thee women and children were inside a cabin in the ship. Most of them died.

The commission is continuing to sit.