Owner refused tragic trawler recovery ‘as dad didn’t ask nicely’
THE owner of a trawler that sank with the loss of its skipper refused to allow the wreck to be raised because the grieving father had not asked him ‘nicely’, a fatal accident inquiry heard.
The body of Scott MacAlister, 40, has never been recovered from the Speedwell, which went down off Easdale, south of Oban, Argyll, on April 25, 2013.
The boat’s owner, John Connell, 59, told a court he refused to help raise the wreck due to the way he was spoken to by Mr MacAlister’s father Peter, a retired fisherman.
Mr Connell told the fatal accident inquiry into the incident: ‘The way he [Peter] spoke to me, I was not very keen to help him in any way. I did not have the money to lift the boat. If I had been asked politely, nicely and decently, permission would have been granted straight away.’
The inquiry at Oban Sheriff Court heard Mr Connell, former skipper of the Cuan ferry, bought the 28ft Speedwell for £30,000 in 2008.
But it was not until late 2012 when Mr MacAlister, a former ferry colleague, approached him to use it as a trawler. Mr Connell spent ‘thousands’ rerigging it and when work was finished by February 2013 Mr MacAlister, from the nearby island of Luing, began fishing from it as skipper, with Robert Gate as crewman.
But Mr Gate was said to have stopped working on the boat after two ‘near sinking’ incidents as the Speedwell returned to Cuan, on the island of Seil, from Loch Buie, off Mull. Mr Gate earlier told the inquiry a rear compartment had filled with water and had to be bailed with a bucket.
Questioned over this, Mr Connell said he was ‘fairly certain’ he saw a bilge pump in the compartment. However, he said he did not install it and he did not know if it was wired in and capable of working.
Three weeks before the boat sank, Mr Connell bought another bilge pump and a float switch after, he claimed, he was asked to by Mr MacAlister.
The MacAlister family’s advocate, Lewis Kennedy, put it to Mr Connell that he had refused to attend an interview under caution with the Maritime Coastguard Agency (MCA) in the aftermath of the accident.
Mr Connell replied: ‘I do not understand what you are talking about. I have no knowledge of being asked by the MCA for anything.’
The inquiry also heard there was no evidence of life jackets being found. Mr Connell responded: ‘There were certainly life jackets there the last time I was on the Speedwell.’
The inquiry heard the boat had never been insured. When asked about this Mr Connell replied: ‘No comment.’
Asked what he would have done if he knew the boat was taking on water and could potentially sink, he replied: ‘Rectified it.’
The inquiry continues.
‘I was not very keen to help him’