Indian villagers come to rescue

HARTLEY BAY, British Columbia – In fishing boats and speed boats, the people of this small Indian village headed into the stormy waters off British Columbia’s north coast to help rescue the 101 passengers and crew aboard a large British Columbia ferry that hit a rock and sank early Wednesday.

David Hahn, the president of B.C. Ferries, called the orderly rescue from the ferry’s lifeboats and the fact that no one was seriously hurt miraculous.

“Anytime you have a major incident and you have no one hurt or killed in this type of thing, I think you always think it’s a miracle,” Hahn said.

Canadian coast guard spokesman Dan Bate said the southbound Queen of the North hit the rock without warning at 12:26 a.m. off Gil Island in Wright Sound, about 6 1/2 miles southeast of here. The area is about 80 miles south of Prince Rupert and about 580 miles northwest of Seattle.

Passengers and crew aboard the 409-foot ship began boarding life rafts less than half an hour later, then were taken aboard local boats and the Canadian icebreaker Sir Wilfred Laurier, Bate said.

By late Wednesday night, 99 passengers and crew were accounted for, but B.C. Ferries was unable to locate two passengers, a man and woman. George Foisy of Terrace, British Columbia, told Canadian Press his brother Gerald Foisy and Gerald’s common-law wife Shirley Rosette remained unaccounted for.

Ferry officials insist everyone got off the ship and speculate the couple returned to Prince Rupert from Hartley Bay on their own, although the village is inaccessible except by air and boat. Ferry officials handed the matter over to police as a missing persons case.

Capt. Trafford Taylor, B.C. Ferries executive vice president of operations, said the Queen of the North was out of the shipping channel when it hit the rock.

“It was obviously off course,” he said.

The Canadian federal Transportation Safety Board was investigating the sinking.

Weather at the time was reported to be 45 mph winds with choppy seas.

The ferry, part of the province’s extensive marine transport service, had left Prince Rupert at 8 p.m. Tuesday for the overnight run to Port Hardy at the northern tip of Vancouver Island.

One passenger told Canadian Press she at first thought she was in the middle of a drill.

“And then when they said to go to the other side of the boat, we knew it was real,” said Jill Lawrence. “But it was very calm. Everyone seemed very calm and the crew did an awesome job to get us off.”

“We heard a crashing noise and the ship went to one side,” passenger Lawrence Papineau said. “Then it was a louder crash … and then everybody realized what was happening and the sirens went off.

“Within an hour, the ship actually tilted to the side, leveled out and it sunk down to the sixth deck, came back up like the Titanic, dipped and then it went under.”

Nicole Robinson, a receptionist at the cultural center in this Gitk’a’ata Tribe town of about 200 residents, said many of those who arrived from the ferry were “stunned” and a few were treated for slight injuries.

“We’ve just had a few patients come and go, minor injuries,” she said. “The community all got together with blankets. Everybody’s pretty cold, but they’re all down at a community hall.”

Some of the crew members told her they were asleep when the vessel hit.

Some ferry passengers with minor injuries were flown by helicopter from Hartley Bay to Prince Rupert, said Hartley Bay resident Wally Bolton, who was helping the rescued at the cultural center.

Health officials in Prince Rupert told Canadian Press that 11 people had been treated at a hospital for cuts and scrapes.

Ernie Westgarth, housing coordinator for Hartley Bay, said, everybody in the village took part in the rescue, “from small children to the elders, including some elders that couldn’t even walk.”

Betsy Reece, whose husband took his speed boat out to help rescue people, said they heard an alert on their marine radio around midnight. Karen Clifton, manager of the Hartley Bay cultural center, said the community sent out a fishing boat and five pleasure craft to rescue people and aid in the ecological recovery work.

After daybreak, most of the passengers were shepherded back onto the Sir Wilfrid Laurier and sailed back to Prince Rupert.

Environment officials mobilized a spill response team as an oil slick spread over the water. Life jackets, cafeteria trays and paper floated in the slick.