In 1987, a tragedy occurred in the waters of the Philippines. 4,000 people died at the same time, and only 22 survived, making it the worst shipwreck of the disaster. Why did such a tragic incident happen, and is there any resemblance to the sinking of the Titanic?
The beginning of the disaster
At the end of 1987, because the Philippines has always had a Christian tradition, in the days approaching Christmas, people in the street markets were busy preparing for the holiday, just like the Chinese would buy New Year goods, Filipinos would prepare a sumptuous meal in advance, and wait until Christmas Eve for the whole family reunion.
Jill, who works in a foreign land, hurriedly buys a ferry ticket and prepares to take her daughter home. Jill could only afford the lowest ticket in his pocket, but the father and daughter were happy to finally be able to step on the ship on the way back. When it was time to board, the two rushed to the dock and boarded the seemingly safe cruise ship "Donapaz".
There are many people who have returned to their hometowns, and most of them have chosen to work abroad for their livelihood, which is very similar to the Jill's family. Cruise ships are actually more spacey, but after all, tickets are cheap, so many people are crowded up.
If they had listened to the whispers of the crew, perhaps there would have been fewer casualties, and the experienced sailors discussed: "I always feel that the ship is not quite right today..... "There seems to be something wrong with the lever in the control room, but the captain doesn't seem to care......"
Their instincts had told them the end, but no one could have imagined that it would lead to purgatory-like disasters on earth.
The Donapaz is actually an imported ship, which was developed and put into use by Japan in the early years. Sulpicio Shipping, which owns the right to operate, makes a lot of money from importing advanced cruise ships.
This trip back to the Philippines made the shipping company a lot of money. Although it is an imported ship, this Donapaz is actually a product that has been eliminated by Japan, the "Himewoo". Sulpicio didn't care, and being able to buy imported ships at a low price seemed to them to be a big bargain.
The hull of the ship is old, and it takes a lot of time just to clean up the barnacles stuck to the bottom of the boat. The company also hired a group of craftsmen to whitewash the cruise ship and paint the new ship name, which sounds elegant and catchy.
Although it costs a lot of labor costs, compared to buying a brand new cruise ship in China, it is not only expensive, but also not as good as this cruise ship has the gimmick of importing to attract tourists.
In addition, after the renovation, the original empty space inside the ship has been renovated into new rooms, and the cruise ship, which can only accommodate more than 400 people, has been changed to a cruise ship that can carry more than 4,000 people.
But this is just a decision that is patted on the head, but it is really put into practice by shipping companies. To know that the entire hull structure has not changed, there are several times more people at once, whether the ship can withstand it, and the shipping company did not ask professionals to measure this data. But Heaven has given them hints.
Lesson
In 1972, the Donapaz suffered a serious fire accident caused by a fire caused by the aging electrical equipment in the internal galley, but there were no casualties due to the fact that the main personnel on board were basically in the control room during the return voyage.
It stands to reason that a fire is extremely undesirable, and the latest cruise ship equipment is updated and inspected by workers before each voyage.
But the Donapaz is considered an old man on a cruise ship. And how can a capitalist company be willing to pay a high price to refurbish its interior?
Even though there was a fire that almost caused a lot of damage, Sulpicio did not learn its lesson and hired workers to repair the damaged parts again, and the matter ended there, and no one asked again.
But in those days, news of the ship's accident made headlines in the newspapers, and people who usually travel on cruise ships questioned the shipping company whether the Donapaz was really safe.
Sulpicio didn't bother. At that time, the public opinion environment was not like today, the breadth and intensity of information dissemination were relatively low, the news would be covered up layer by layer, and the accident of the Donapaz was gradually forgotten.
And this cruise ship is not aimed at the high-end group who attach great importance to safety and comfort, and the cheap ticket price and enough location to return to the voyage are enough for the average family like Jill.
Normally, the occurrence of a major crisis is often an accumulation of chance, and it seems that the great crisis is an accident, but in fact, the crisis has already reminded people of their existence in various ways.
Hell shipwrecked
In the days leading up to Christmas, people are even less concerned about what is wrong with a ship, and even the captain and his crew are eating meals and drinking red wine in the work room, saying that they can go home for Christmas at the end of the voyage.
Everyone is looking forward to the holy holiday, but God really played a joke on everyone.
The ship departs at 3 p.m. and arrives at its destination around the next morning. The boat is also brightly lit in the middle of the night, and the lights in the front row check whether there are reefs on the sea.
At about 12 o'clock in the middle of the night, misfortune happened. The Donapaz, laden with guests, collided with the tanker Victor. More than 4,000 people on board woke up from their sleep and came to the deck to see what was happening.
If the two passenger ships had collided, there might not have been such a tragic accident, but the tanker had already been damaged at the moment of the collision, and the gasoline it was loaded with began to leak, some leaked into the sea, and some dumped on the Donapaz.
There was a lot of electrical equipment on board, and after the collision, the various equipment affected began to spark, which made the gasoline deflagrate, and the two ships almost became "oil pots" in the flames.
The frightened people had no choice but to jump ship, but this did not prevent the fire from engulfing it, the gasoline leaked to the sea, because of the density, the gasoline did not sink, the spreading flames had already burned to the sea, and the people who jumped off the boat could only gradually burn to death in the torment of the fire, and the boiling sea and the picture of people struggling were like the broth purgatory described in the Bible.
The Donapaz and Victor sank in the icy night.
After the accident, the crew also issued a distress signal for the first time, but it was too late for the rescue team to arrive, leaving only the smell of burned corpses, and the unburned gasoline still floating on the sea, this disaster of 4,000 people brought a great impact to the public opinion circles
Retrospective of the accident
When the Philippine government learned of the tragic shipwreck, it set up an investigation team to investigate the cause of the accident.
Even before departure, the sailors on the cruise ship were already vaguely aware of the problem with the ship's operating levers. However, the captain of the cruise ship had sailing experience and decided that it would not affect the voyage and decided to make repairs after returning to the voyage.
The captain of the ship bears great responsibility for the accident, and his conceit has caused countless lives to die in a terrible form. In addition, the Victor did not sail according to the regulations.
And the oil tanker carries three times more gasoline than usual, and the person responsible for managing the oil tanker and the customer have one nostril to vent gas, and the more goods can be carried can pay less shipping fees, which makes the driver of the oil tanker die in the fire.
At the end of the voyage, they were supposed to be reunited on Christmas Eve and live happily, but they were forced to sacrifice their lives for the selfish interests of their clients.
After the government intervened in the investigation, the shipping companies involved in the accident were punished. Faced with the final results of the investigation into the death report, Sulpicio is still pretending not to admit it.
In order to sell tickets, it has modified the ship without authorization, transforming the dilapidated cruise ship that can only accommodate 400 people into the volume of a large cruise ship, and in order to sell tickets, the company also advertises the safety and comfort of the ship everywhere, but this is all the company's propaganda rhetoric.
The tickets sold were enough for Sulpicio to buy another obsolete ship, but now in the face of the accident, he flatly denied his guilt.
The families of the victims, undoubtedly grieving, heard on the eve of a wonderful Christmas Eve that they had died and died in torture, and they demanded a reasonable answer from the Sulpicio Company and the operator of the Victor.
Because in the last century, diving technology was not yet mature, and it was not possible to go deep into the deep sea. Many of the victims are even dead, and family members can only hold funerals with items that the deceased loved during their lifetime and put them in the cemetery.
Condemnation of public opinion
Due to the extremely bad nature of the shipwreck, the families of the victims have also continued to protest. Sulpicio could not withstand the overwhelming pressure to allow the government to investigate.
The final investigation report revealed that the shipping company used all kinds of methods to collect money. In order to sell more tickets, the number of people on board the boat can only be more than 400 people. Through unreasonable modifications, the company forcibly accommodated the ship to more than 1,000 people.
Perhaps in order to make a fortune before Christmas, there is not even a ticket office in the strict sense of the word. The official list of ticket purchases obtained by the investigation later did not match the actual number of victims.
It turns out that those who have already purchased a ticket can board the ship, and those who have not purchased a ticket can also board the boat first and then make up the ticket. In this way, the Donapaz, which is not a large cruise ship, can accommodate nearly 10 times the number of people.
Even without this collision, it would have been a question of whether the Donapaz would have made it to its destination safely. Sulpicio was unhappy that he was the only one who was condemned by public opinion, and instead blamed the Victor for not lighting up the warning lights at night to warn passing ships of causing the accident.
However, the investigation report did not spare the two companies, and both parties have unshirkable responsibility for the accident. After the accident, the operating income of the two shipping companies plummeted, and their credit was completely lost, and they lost their living space.
But in this tragic shipwreck, the company only lost money, and for those who were killed, their lives came to an end, leaving behind their grieving families. The fact that the initiator of the accident did not repent is really emotional.
epilogue
A gentleman loves money and takes it in a good way. Even if there were two companies like this that put their personal interests above the public, other catastrophic events would have occurred in the future. Hopefully, the accident will serve as a wake-up call to the world's shipping companies, after all, the safety of passengers is more precious than priceless jewelry.