SURVIVING crew member Benjamin Tupou who was on watch duty on the bridge from 8pm to when the MV Princess Ashika sank just before midnight on August 5, 2009, said that he woke up at 7:40pm that night to find water inside the cabin and some of his fellow crew member were bailing it out.

The jury trial of four men and the Shipping Corporation of Polynesia Ltd charged with manslaughter by negligence and additional counts relating to the sinking of the MV Princess Ashika continued into its fourth week on Monday, March 7.

Benjamin, in evidence, said the crew's cabin was located beneath the cargo deck and the water came through the mess room deck, which is located on the same level as that of the cargo and then came down to the crew's cabin.

He was asked by the Crown Prosecutor 'Aminiasi Kefu on how deep was the water in his cabin. He said that he had running shoes that he was planning wear on that night when he went on duty, but the shoes had floated on the water and when the vessel swayed it took them away.

He also demonstrated that the water was up to two inches, which was not much. But it was also not normal for the water to reach this depth in the cabin, he said.

The crew bailed all the water out from the cabin, but then water came back in again and they repeated the same thing. After this I went up for duty on the bridge and saw a male passenger standing on the cargo deck who said water was also coming in through the cargo deck, he said.

Benjamin began working for the Shipping Corporation of Polynesia Ltd as a crew member for the Ashika in 2007, said the first time he saw the vessel was in 2005 in Fiji.

Prior to the SCP he was employed with the Uata Shipping and was working on the Pulupaki and in 2005 they were in Fiji and that is when he saw the Ashika.

I noticed that the Ashika was very old and there was extensive corrosion, he said.

Holes

He also told the court that the pipes leading to the engine room on the Ashika were corroded. And the steering wheel could not be turned entirely in order to turn the vessel in a particular direction. One had to turn the helm to a certain point and then it would gradually turn but it took a while, he said.

Benjamin added there was swelling on the middle of the bow ramp door and a forklift could not go on top of it so they had no other choice but to use the stern ramp for loading the cargo.

He added there were also holes in the vessel. He said returning to Nuku'alofa from one of the trips the welders chipped away the corrosion to patch up a hole with new steel. But as they chipped away the corrosion to find a hard surface to weld the new piece of steel onto in order shut the hole they instead found a bigger hole, he said.

The trial which is now expected to run for over a month continues for the rest of the week.