Survivors mourn loss of shipmate
By Mike Gordon
Advertiser Staff Writer
Even at this moment, somewhere 220 miles south of the Big Island, the crippled refueling tanker Insiko 1907 drifts westward, a floating tomb for the one crewman who did not survive a devastating fire.
The 256-foot tanker has not officially been abandoned by its Indonesian owner, but its fate has not been determined, said U.S. Coast Guard Lt. DesaRae Atnip. The Coast Guard currently lists it as a hazard to mariners in the area. It estimates Insiko is headed for Guam, traveling at less than half a knot.
"It is in the middle of nowhere," Atnip said.
The ship's 11 survivors were rescued Tuesday by the cruise ship Norwegian Star and brought to Honolulu by the Coast Guard, one of them with serious burns.
But even as the crew recovers, their thoughts are on their missing shipmate.
He was last seen in the engine room where a devastating fire began March 13, said Skip Howard, a ship's agent with Transmarine Navigation, the company hired to help them get home.
"My understanding is that the engine room is full of water and that was where he was seen last, so if he is even recoverable is not known at this point," Howard said. "I know that we would like to recover the body simply to return it home."
After the fire, which cut all electricity aboard the ship and severely burned the chief engineer, the engine room would have become a dark and dangerous place, Howard said.
Recovering the body or salvaging the ship is made more complicated by the fact that Transmarine Navigation represents the company that provided the crew and not the ship's owner.
"At this point, there is no salvage or recovery effort," he said. "It is the owner's responsibility to do this and if he declines, we have no alternative."
Any effort to salvage the vessel could be very expensive, said Kevin Kinerney, district manager for Transmarine Navigation.
"We are waiting for more guidance for what will happen to the vessel," Kinerney said. "It is a big project to go out and find it and hook it up and bring it back. It could cost $100,000."
And it is not without hazard.
"It is dangerous," he said. "You have to find out if she is seaworthy. What kind of cargo she has and if it is hazardous. And someone has to climb up onto the ship and rig the towing gear."
Transmarine Navigation is working with Taiwanese government officials in Honolulu to arrange the repatriation of the crew, Kinerney said.
The chief engineer, meanwhile, is recovering at Straub Clinic & Hospital and is listed in satisfactory condition, said hospital spokeswoman Claire Tong.
The engineer — identified by the Coast Guard as Wong Tehsiong, 50 — was initially burned over 54 percent of his body. But by the time he was brought to the hospital Tuesday, his wounds covered only 23 percent of his body, Tong said.
The crew could be headed home to Taiwan and the People's Republic of China within a week, said Donald Radcliffe, district director for the Immigration and Naturalization Service in Honolulu.
