Wavedancer owner answers critics
Twenty lives were lost when the diveboat Wavedancer capsized in the middle of Hurricane Iris in the waters of the Big Creek Port. Tonight, the owner of the Wavedancer is back in Belize and in his first television interview since the accident, Peter Hughes offers his company’s version of the events that ended in Belize’s biggest maritime disaster.
Janelle Chanona
“Tell me about being back in Belize coming off the incident last year with the Wavedancer in the Big Creek Port.”
Peter Hughes, Diveboat Operator
“The Wavedancer incident was obviously a tragic, tragic incident. And I have been accused perhaps of being rather callous because of my desire to come back to Belize and because of some of the statements I made about looking forward to coming back to Belize. But what people must realise, is that fact that while this may sound callous coming from me, it’s not, I have a lot of responsibilities that go far beyond myself. There are seventy or eighty families around the world that make their living from our companies and our related companies. Here in Belize we have the distinct pleasure and privilege of doing business in your country for ten years. It was an incident-free ten years, it was a very good ten years. Belize was good to me, I think I was good to Belize. I think I gave back in kind what I received. After the tragic incident, there were a lot of heated emotions, which one can expect, there was a tremendous amount of grief. Over time grief turns to anger, anger turns to the need for revenge et cetera, so I sympathise, I feel for those people. Everyday of my life when I wake up I think of those people and I think of the people that were left behind.”
“So I feel remorseful, I feel tremendous sorrow and regret for what happened, but I also feel a certain sense of optimism in the future. I can’t change what happened, but I can ensure it will never happen again, and that I intend to do.”
Janelle Chanona
“How do you intend to do so, make sure that never happens again?”
Peter Hughes
“Based on all of this, we have obviously adapted our hurricane plan. And we deal with tourists, our job in dealing with tourists and our crew of course, but primarily our job is to make sure that the tourists that visit us here in Belize have a good time. There were certain collective decisions made on the night of the tragedy that will never again be collectively made. There will be mandatory evacuations of the crew at least twenty-four hours prior to any possibility of a hurricane striking us. We expected that hurricane as you know, to strike right here. When we attempted to bring our vessel right here to disembark our passengers, we were not allowed to do so. We were advised that the hotel would not receive them and we were advised that the city was being evacuated because the hurricane was scheduled, or projected, forecasted to hit Belize City and Dangriga, so we went south. Unfortunately, the hurricane followed us south.”
“My captain made decisions that I support at this point, but in the future, even though that is where the boat will go, I assure you, there will be no passengers onboard and any crewmembers that are onboard will be absolutely one hundred percent voluntary. They will have the right to park the boat, secure it as you see it, but in Big Creek and leave.”
Janelle Chanona
“As for the allegation made by one of your former employees, Miss Angela Luk, that the captain told the Belizean crewmembers that if they left they would be fired, how does your company respond to that?”
Peter Hughes
“You’re a professional journalist, you know that anything somebody said can be interpreted or misinterpreted deliberately or accidentally. I think in the heat of the moment, that what the captain said was misinterpreted. I was not there so I do not know what he said. Miss Luk was there, but she was under a tremendous amount of emotional distress at the time. What I have been told by several sources, that my captain actually said was–she was a temporary crewmember, not a full-time crewmember–and what I told he said was, “Angie if you leave, you understand you may not be able to step back onboard whenever you want to.” That’s what he said.
And the other two, who were so unfortunately lost, have been on our vessels long enough. And one of them in particular, a very dear friend, Eloisa Johnson, who I knew better than Miss Brenda Wade, many, many times in the past when I would visit the boat, if she had a problem with anything the captain would do, would come right up to me and very vocally let me know what the problem was. So I assure you, in my mind and in my conscience, I believe that if they had really feared for their lives at the time, they would have walked off of that boat, not been afraid that they had been fired. Had they been fired, which would not have happened, I know they would have called me to say hey guy, this isn’t fair.”
Janelle Chanona
“You mention that IMMARBE is doing an investigation. They have told News 5 that their investigation will not come up with any sort of blame laying. Does your company at this point accept any negligence or blame in the deaths of those twenty people?”
Peter Hughes
“No. We do not feel we were negligent. We absolutely think that we acted in the best interest at the time with the information we had available to us. It was impossible, it was only a matter of a few hours prior to the hurricane striking us head-on that we knew that hurricane would not be north of Dangriga. Had that hurricane be north of Dangriga, you and I would not be having this interview now, we’d be talking of something much more pleasant.”
Yanis Gibson, Crewmember, SUNDANCER II
“It was sad, but we can’t do nothing.”
Janelle Chanona
“Did you know any of the girls, Brenda or Eloisa?”
Yanis Gibson
“Yes. We all grow up together.”
Janelle Chanona
“So you noh have any qualms about working now?”
Yanis Gibson
“No. I enjoy it.”
Janelle Chanona
“If during the season, this outing and you have a hurricane coming, what will be your hurricane plan?”
Yanis Gibson
“Stay with the boat.”
Janelle Chanona
“You’d stay onboard?”
Yanis Gibson
“Yes. It’s my job and I take it seriously, so I will stay. Weh fi happen, happen, so I will stay.”
According to Hughes, Phillip Martin, the captain of the Wavedancer at the time of the sinking, resigned from his post shortly after the tragedy.
