| The Transportation Safety Board of Canada states that "In the early hours of 02 December 1997, while bringing on board the final haul of a herring trawling voyage, the small fishing vessel "Pacific Charmer" slowly heeled to starboard before downflooding and sinking in about 55 metres of water in Pylades Channel, B.C. The sea and weather conditions at the time were calm. Two of the vessel's crew and a Department of Fisheries and Oceans observer were rescued. The remaining two crew members succumbed to hypothermia and drowning. The vessel initially heeled to starboard because her intact transverse stability had been reduced by the cumulative detrimental effects of the weight of additional and spare fishing gear; asymmetric loading; free surface effects of liquids in partially filled tanks and fish holds; and fish waste water retained on deck. The dynamic effects of the weight of the trawl net cod-end being briefly suspended from a winch located above the wheel-house caused a sudden rise in the vessel's virtual centre of gravity. In conjunction with the initial small heel to starboard, the dynamic effects were such that the vessel heeled further to starboard and remained briefly at an angle of about 40 degrees. Seawater shipped at this time downflooded through open weathertight doorways until all reserve buoyancy was lost and the "Pacific Charmer" sank." "The "Pacific Charmer" was built in 1988 as a small fishing vessel of closed construction, with an all-welded steel, multi-chine hull form and a transom stern incorporating a central sloped fish-loading ramp. The hull below the main deck is sub-divided by three transverse watertight bulkheads, and arranged into three pairs of insulated fish holds located symmetrically either side of a centre-line shaft tunnel, as shown in the "Outline General Arrangement" (Appendix A1). The vessel is powered by a marine diesel engine with a reduction gearbox driving a single controllable-pitch propeller in a fixed Kort nozzle, and is fitted with three high-aspect-ratio, high-efficiency linked rudders. The vessel is equipped for mid-water and bottom trawling operations, with three nets on storage drums and two trawl doors (otter boards) located at the after end of the main deck, two trawl winches near amidships, and a 3.5-ton safe working load (SWL) loading boom on the centre line. A hydraulically driven net-hauling winch capable of 10 tons' pull is fitted on the after side of the main mast, above the level of the wheel-house top. A control station for the operation of the main engine, propeller pitch, rudders, the loading boom and its winches, etc., is located at the after starboard corner of the wheel-house, having a clear view of the working area at the after end of the main deck. Also installed in the wheel-house is a comprehensive outfit of navigation and communication equipment that includes two radar sets, a video plotter, very high frequency (VHF) radios, Loran C, global positioning system (GPS), autopilot and depth echo-sounders." this vessel is no longer registered in Canada. |
