ONE of the Condor crew members on trial for manslaughter expected the L’Ecume II fishing boat to give way so did not alter the course of the freight ship or slow down, he told his Royal Court trial.
Lewis Carr (30) was in the Royal Court on Monday giving evidence in the trial against him and Artur Sevash-Zade (35), relating to the collision between the Commodore Goodwill and fishing vessel L’Ecume II.
The collision caused the deaths of L’Ecume II’s three crew members – captain Michael Michieli, Larry Simyunn and Jervis Baligat. Mr Carr and Mr Sevash-Zade each deny three charges of manslaughter.
Mr Carr was a second officer and, at the time of the collision, the most senior officer on the Goodwill’s bridge.
He told the court how he saw L’Ecume II’s lights through his binoculars – but that the vessel didn’t have its fishing lights on, which meant it ought to have given way to the Goodwill under international regulations.
He said: “I expected L’Ecume to give way or slow down.”
In the minute before the collision happened, he said: “At that point it was clear L’Ecume was not following the collision regulations to give way or slow down, so I made [a] large alteration of course to starboard to avoid L’Ecume.”
L’Ecume II also changed its course, he said – meaning the collision was unavoidable.
Mr Carr had previously been criticised by the prosecution for allowing Mr Sevash-Zade to go to the mess and have breakfast, leaving him alone on the bridge in night-time conditions.
Questioned about the practice, he said this had been started by one of the Goodwill’s captains.
He said: “On occasion, when the ship was running late, there was a pressure from shoreside managers to captains to get the ship back on time.”
He clarified that the pressure came from “Condor shoreside managers in Poole”.
“The lookout’s role in port was to assist the loading of the vehicles. If he had his breakfast before arriving in the port, this would save 18 to 20 minutes that he didn’t have to spend in the port.”
Breakfast, he said, started being served after the lookout started their shift at 5am.
“Before he left, I made sure he had a radio turned on and if he was needed, I would call him immediately to the bridge,” Mr Carr said. “At the time, the sea passage was was totally clear. I would not have permitted the lookout to leave the bridge if there was any traffic, if there was any cause for concern.
“With hindsight, I can obviously see it’s not a good practice. It’s not something I would repeat in the future.”
He described how the Goodwill’s second officers were trialling a new shift pattern the week of the collision. The shift pattern, called “rolling eights”, saw them work alternating shifts – with three eight-hour shifts from 1am to 9am, from 9am to 5pm, or from 5pm to 1am.
He said: “The hours were still no better than the hours before.
“I think at the time, you just got on with your job.
“I wouldn’t say I was consciously tired at the time.”
The prosecution had criticised Mr Carr and Mr Sevash-Zade’s communication on the bridge. They said they were required to think out loud so that they both knew what decisions were being made.
But Mr Carr said: “I think it was written in the manual, but in reality, it wasn’t always carried out.”
Advocate Simon Thomas, defending him, asked: “The captain, when he gave evidence, referred to it as a ‘work in progress’. What do you say to that?”
Mr Carr replied: “All of the able seamen all had varying levels of communications in terms of English. They were all from the Ukraine.”
He added: “Closed-loop [communication] – I never really experienced it with any captain or officer where they would repeat the whole handover. It was more of an acknowledgement that they understood what was being said and vice versa.”
Mr Carr said that able seamen would take turns acting as lookouts – meaning he could work with 18 to 20 different lookouts in the space of two months.
“There wasn’t a whole lot of time to build rapport,” he said.
The jury trial, which has now entered its third week, is scheduled to last one month.
Commissioner Sir John Saunders is presiding.
