In a foolhardy and reckless overnight voyage with an indifference to anticipated inclement weather, the vessel and its unqualified crew broached and surfed through wild seas as it crossed the Vitiaz Strait near Finschhafen en route to Lae in Morobe Province.

Just before dawn the ferry was hit by three large consecutive waves and it capsized and sank.

Most of the passengers, which included many women, teenagers and schoolchildren were thrown into the ocean as the boat rolled and pitched amidst the squally conditions.

Response vessels arrived at the scene some three hours later and rescued 246 survivors, from drifting emergency life rafts. Several casualties were also found clinging perilously to lifejackets in the treacherous channel.

The precise number of fatalities will never be known because the shipping company was unable to provide a genuine manifest of its passengers. Anecdotal evidence suggests the vessel exceeded its specified carrying capacity and overcrowding contributed to the disaster with some survivors estimating almost 700 people were aboard the vessel.

The victims included many students and schoolchildren returning to Lae for the impending semesters at colleges and schools within Morobe Province.

A subsequent commission of inquiry headed by a retired Australian judge involved numerous public hearings, submissions and testimonies, which disclosed a litany of corporate negligence, recklessness and bungling governance.

This included disreputable and potentially unethical relationships and clandestine transactions between the National Maritime Safety Authority, independent certification agencies, insurance companies and even the head of government.

The final report directed an extensive amount of excoriating criticism towards Rabaul Shipping and its repugnant managing director, Captain Peter Sharp.

Despite an extensive maritime career, the mercenary and intimidating racist tyrant never displayed a skerrick of concern covering safety of passengers or crew aboard his fleet of disintegrating rust buckets.

It was evident from numerous testimonies that passenger ferries were regularly overcrowded and maintenance was sadly neglected. Indeed, most expatriate white people in Papua New Guinea were discouraged or even prohibited from using the vessels, particularly during peak operating periods.

The despicable malapert displayed absolute contempt for authority, especially regulatory agencies such as the National Maritime Safety Authority.

Indeed, Captain Sharp’s various shipping companies and fleet of dilapidated passenger vessels using unskilled and subjugated crews plied the coastal waters of Papua New Guinea unabated over many years.

Mariners and other subordinates were f requently intimidated and treated like bilge water and many believed it was most unfortunate the cantankerous creature was not aboard the vessel when it capsized and sank during its fateful voyage.

Following the commission of inquiry several people including the Rabaul Shipping managing director were arraigned for criminal negligence and manslaughter. However, the state failed to prove there was any risk associated with normal use of the ship and Captain Peter Sharp was acquitted of manslaughter.

In October 2018 additional charges of sending an unseaworthy vessel out to sea were enigmatically dropped by the public prosecutor.

In early May 2019, Captain Peter Sharp died after a prolonged and painful battle with cancer and many bereaved families following Papua New Guinea’s worst civilian maritime disaster were left chasing smoke…… ‘While you never shed a tear, I cried a river over you’.

Further revelations from previous maritime incidents in Papua New Guinea waters suggest the devious and irascible traits may even be hereditary. Hamish Sharp, the deceased captain’s brother, was appointed by the incumbent prime minister Sir Michael Somare to head the National Maritime Safety Authority.

It was a rather controversial selection, especially considering the ruthless socially autistic martinet also owned Bismark Maritime Limited, which operated extensive coastal shipping services in the region over many years.

In early April 2006 two Filipino marine engineers aboard the MV Sealark suffered severe burns following a fire in its engine room whilst the ship was berthed in Lae harbour.

The vessel was eventually sunk and created a 300 metre oil slick within the Huon Gulf. Bismark Maritime Limited was issued with a pollution prevention notice and ordered to raise and remove the wreck from its precarious location by the statutory maritime authority.

The response from Hamish Sharp was quite extraordinary and involved selling the wreckage to an anonymous buyer for a surreptitious token sum of PGK 1.00.

The fate of the injured engineers was shrouded in conjecture although media reports and several patrons in the nearby Lae Yacht Club claimed it was rather brutal and somewhat inhumane.

Both of the victims were left to die and were eventually transferred to Australia for extensive medical treatment at Brisbane and Gold Coast private hospitals. Several close friends provided noble assistance, which was complemented by pastoral care from an aboriginal community support group.

Many adversaries suggested it was extremely unfortunate the loathsome owner was not aboard the vessel when it was sent to Davy Jones’ Locker, where the wreck remains. Moreover, the location presents a significant risk to commercial shipping entering or leaving the country’s busiest port.

The significance of the event gradually attenuated although it rekindled several years later after an incident involving another Bismark Maritime vessel in waters off Mailu Island.

A gaping hole suddenly appeared in the port side engine room of the MV San Pedro, which sank to the bottom of the Coral Sea and allegedly contained an extremely valuable cargo.

It beggars belief that the head of a statutory authority managed a private shipping company that lost two vessels in just over two years in coastal waters off Papua New Guinea.

Moreover, the prime minister was a shareholder with the Pacific Register of Ships, a private independent organisation that issued vessel seaworthiness certificates. Its clients included Bismark Maritime Limited and Rabaul Shipping, which were owned by Hamish Sharp and Peter Sharp respectively.

It was well established that certification was a superficial nostrum and the major beneficiary from the scam was Bismark Maritime and its treacherous managing director who controlled the National Maritime Safety Authority.

In Papua New Guinea the malaise is certainly not restricted to maritime transport and prevails throughout the logistics supply chain sector. Convoys of dilapidated trucks with decrepit trailers regularly negotiate the treacherous Okuk Highway from the port of Lae in Morobe Province.

The vehicles often carry dangerous goods such as ammonium nitrate and sodium cyanide with bulk diesel and aviation fuel supplies for major energy and resources projects in the Southern Highlands and Enga provinces.

Despite a myriad of guidelines, codes of practice and other bureaucratic nostrums, which include independent third party certification audits, it is only a matter of time before the next disaster. The subsequent whitewash or witch hunt often blames the soporific, intoxicated and inarticulate driver to protect reputations, secure assets and socialise the loss, especially if the victim dies.

The malfeasance and turpitude equals and often exceeds the egregious performance of many politicians, public serpents and other panjandrums within federal, state and local governments across Australia.

Indeed, most established white expatriates in Papua New Guinea invariably have some form and the buccaneering entrepreneurial spirit typically encourages the deification and accumulation of profit.

This is usually acknowledged as the ultimate test of human achievement and is often rewarded or bestowed with an order of chivalry, which further encourages devious, dishonest or amoral behaviour to fulfil sinister objectives and attain recognition.