The Korean Ferry Sewol, at 20 years old, had already been on the Incheon to Jeju run for just over one year. At 19 years old, she had been modified by the addition of superstructure, diminishing her Survivability Index and stability margins, but still remaining within legal limits. The Survivability Index of a ship is the chance of surviving a disaster scenario.

At 8.48 on the morning of April 16, 2014, the Sewol, travelling at 18 knots in benign conditions, took a hard-to-starboard turn, causing the vessel to heel over to port. The unlashed trucks in the vehicle deck shifted to port and the vessel’s list became dangerous. A disaster scenario was upon them, and within 15 minutes the situation had gone beyond rectification.

Had the inexperienced 3rd officer – the officer of the watch – put the helm over to avoid one of the 36 whale species in the area? Was there a technical glitch in the steering? This was never determined, but she was in tears by the time the Captain came on the bridge a few minutes later. At this stage, the ship was listing 30 degrees with water pouring into the vehicle side deck door and stern door.

The Captain, using the ship’s broadcasting system at 8.52, gave the instruction for everyone to stay where they were and continued the same message even when the water was rushing into the passenger accommodation. Standard procedure on all passenger ships globally where danger is emerging is to get everyone to muster stations.

At 8.55 the first call for help was made by the ship, just 7 minutes after the helm hard over incident.

At 9.07 the vessel confirmed they were capsizing and again requested help.

At 9.18 the vessel confirmed an angle of 50 degrees and was unable to launch lifeboats.

During this time, the Captain continued instructing the passengers to stay put until at 9.23 the ship broadcasting system failed.

By 9.48 the first rescue boat left the scene with the Captain on board. According to survivors, there had never been an abandon ship message although the Captain insists that he made one. Below decks, the hundreds of students from the Danwon High School, stayed put as instructed – enjoying the changing ship angle, happily videoing each other, until the horror of the water cascaded in and drowned most of them. Iphones recovered verified this appalling disaster.

The cause of the sinking remained undetermined by December 2022, but the summary included the collective incompetence of the officer of the watch and the Captain while the speed of the capsize and the sinking was noted as being incredibly fast.

As an ex-seafarer and ship designer, my ears pricked up when I heard a very good friend of mine in the US commenting that it was disappointing watching Australia sinking, but it’s true.

Think about it, merrily sailing along as the lucky country we have diminished our Survivability Index, that is our ability to handle a disaster scenario such as war, by embracing the green environmental cult over the last 30 years and empowering armies of autonomous bureaucracies. Outside the control of politicians these, snowflakes have strangled the growth of companies big and small by an avalanche of rules, regulations, and accompanying fees. We have the highest amount of national parks per head of population, 10 times the US and 15 times the UK

The stranglehold on almost all of our coastline and dredging makes it almost impossible to establish any new ports even small ones. The Queensland Labor/Green government for instance, passed a Sustainable Ports Act in 2015 to ensure no one else built a port along the 7,000 km coastline, apart from the 10 existing trading ports, most owned by the Queensland government.

Having a port every 700 kms shouldn’t give bragging rights and stifles regional development, at the same time ensuring that our defence vessels have no strategic bases.

To give some context, Gujarat in India has a port every 53 kms and the UK has a port every 65 kms which ensured that nation’s security through two world wars.

Adding spice to this environmental utopia mantra, there has been a sudden hard swing to ‘cheap renewables’ by the incoming Labor government which is causing the ship to economically list over dangerously within just a few months. The inexperienced twit in charge of the nation’s most important asset, our energy, is the watchkeeping officer.

This incompetent has drastically altered course veering away from a solid reliable base source of coal and gas energy while chasing an ideology that is unproven, and that the nation cannot remotely afford.

Check out whether you think the ship is sinking:

• The energy, fuel, and food prices have skyrocketed with staggering bills coming in the back and front doors.
• Disposable income has vaporised, much to the chagrin of coffee shops and many small businesses.
• The superannuation is being attacked, and all taxes are increasing.
• The national productivity has tanked.
• The Defence budget has hit a brick wall, once again being reviewed.
• The youth crime rate has trebled.
• The number of bureaucrats and fee-based permits for almost everything, have doubled.
• Unprecedented house prices.
• Unavailability of accommodation.
• The drop in the value of our currency.
• The collapse of our legal system and our health system.
• The collapse of our family values and demonisation of churches.

But hey, some news! The Captain has appeared on the Bridge! This incompetent leader has decided to salvage the situation by advising us that a brigade of race-based bureaucrats will ensure Indigenous Australians get a better deal and save the nation. He repeats the message constantly while the ship is sinking. Like the Captain of the very real sunken ship, he has no cognisance of what’s most important to the people in his charge.

The population, merrily videoing each other in their daily lives are now finally taking notice of the prices, the crime, the increasing burden on small businesses, and even more important, the blatant lies told by this Captain and officers prior to their appointment.

Unlike the former Captain and several cohorts that were jailed for life, this incompetent political team responsible for sinking the nation should not be allowed to get away with undeserved gold cards and huge pensions for the rest of their lives.

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