| The Transportation Safety Board of Canada reports that "On 29 June 2005, at about 1640 Pacific daylight time, while enroute from the Queen Charlotte Strait to Gibsons, British Columbia, on the Sunshine Coast, the small fishing vessel Morning Sunrise, with 500 prawn traps on deck and approximately 4500 kg of frozen prawns in boxes in the freezer hold, listed heavily to port and gradually sank in 152 m of water. All four crew members on board, wearing immersion suits, abandoned the vessel into a liferaft and were soon picked up by the Canadian Coast Guard cutter Cape Caution." "The Morning Sunrise was a small fibreglass-over-wood, carvel-built fishing vessel of closed construction with a rounded bilge. The wheelhouse, crew accommodation, and engine room were located forward of amidships. The sole means of entrance to the wheelhouse was via a Dutch door located in the after bulkhead. Below the main deck, the hull was subdivided by three transverse watertight bulkheads into four compartments: a forward crew accommodation space, the engine room, a fish hold, and the lazarette. The vessel had two fuel tanks, one on either side of the main engine. The potable water tank was located in the lazarette. The insulated and refrigerated fish hold had double hatch covers. It contained refrigeration plates and a stowage area with pen boards to contain the product. The refrigeration compressor was run off the main engine. The wheelhouse was equipped with navigation and communications equipment including two radar sets, two very high frequency (VHF) radios (one with digital selective calling capability), a global positioning system, an autopilot, and a depth sounder. The vessel was equipped with a pair of outrigger booms with roll-reduction paravanes. An aluminum platform, extending approximately 1.67 m aft of the extreme end of the weather deck, was used to store prawn traps. An aluminum railing surrounded the perimeter of the platform. A similar aluminum platform extended approximately 2.75 m aft, from the top deck of the housework. This was used to store various fishing equipment and a tote that was temporarily used to store prawns before freezing." |
