The Pisces, which sank off the coast of Wexford claiming five lives, was overloaded, unseaworthy and had poor stability characteristics, said a technical expert in court yesterday.
James Snellgrove, an engineer employed by the Department of Marine and Natural Resources who works with the Marine Casualty Investigation Board, was giving evidence in the trial of Patrick Barden, skipper of the Pisces, which sank a mile from Fethard-on-Sea with 10 people on board in July 2002. Mr Barden is charged with the manslaughter of five of the passengers and with two other counts relating to the condition of the boat.
Mr Snellgrove told Paul O'Higgins, prosecuting, that modifications were made to the boat before Mr Barden bought it, including the construction of a deck and the introduction of freeports (holes cuts in the sides of the boat to allow water on deck to flow out).
He said tests found that if the boat was depressed on one side by three inches, the freeports would be level with the sea and if it was depressed further, the water could flow in through them. He said that if a life raft had been on board, lives would have been saved.
However, John O'Kelly, defending, said later that legislation at the time would not have required the boat to have a life raft. The accident was a "tragic coming together of a number of factors", Mr O'Kelly said, but had the modifications to the boat not taken place, the accident would not have happened. Mr Snellgrove replied: "Who can say?"
The court was told that Mr Barden had bought the boat for €6,000 two months before the accident from Robert Chapman, who also took the stand. He testified that he had often taken 1,000kgs of fish on board the boat without any problem.
The transcript of an interview gardaí had with Mr Barden was read in court in which he said that some of the damage to the boat was done while it was being recovered and not before the accident.
He said that the water had come into the boat very quickly and it was a great mystery to him how it had happened.
The case continues today.
