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Victims of a tragedy at sea
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Professional fishermen, whose trade ranks among the most dangerous of occupations, routinely live with hazards such as high seas, strong winds, rolling decks and potentially dangerous gear and machinery. In this week’s incident another factor – thick fog – appears to have played a part in the sinking of
Les Marquises, the boat in which M Lesaulnier and his two colleagues were potting for whelks between the Minquiers and Chausey.
Despite modern technology which can propel giant craft at more than 30 knots and penetrate the murkiest of conditions thanks to radar, the open sea remains a seriously hostile environment, even if passengers now travel across it in considerable comfort and with scarcely a second thought about its inherent dangers.
Indeed, high-speed sea travel between the islands, the UK and France is seen by most of us as merely routine. The risk of seasickness, timetable revisions and delays or cancellations caused by engine trouble – a problem which has plagued Condor in recent years – are ordinarily the only reasons for passenger disquiet. It is a sobering thought that a service that so many of us take for granted
could be the focus of events that led to the loss of human life and the dramatic rescue of two men clinging to the hull of a boat that eyewitnesses say was sliced in two.
It should, of course, go without saying that the full picture of why the Condor ferry collided with the French boat has yet to be revealed, and it would therefore be foolish and potentially prejudicial to speculate on exactly what happened. Full investigations, involving the police as well as accident specialists, are now in progress and their findings will be of compelling interest not only to those who ply the seas around the Channel Islands, but also to the wider world.
However, compelling as this whole awful story undoubtedly is, we should all be aware that the victims of the sinking of Les Marquises include not only M Lesaulnier, but also his wife and four children. Together they have lost a
husband, father and breadwinner and they must be the principal focus of our concern.
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