# Women and children drown on Tongan ferry



## DET63 (Aug 6, 2009)

> A survivor has described how the Tongan ferry Princess Ashika overturned and all the women and children perished, as searchers combed waters for survivors.
> 
> The Princess Ashika was heading from Nuku'alofa to Ha'afeva, in the Nomuka Islands group, when it issued a mayday call just before 11pm last night, quickly followed by the release of a distress beacon.
> 
> ...


Link


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## Green Maned Lion (Aug 7, 2009)

DET63 said:


> > A survivor has described how the Tongan ferry Princess Ashika overturned and all the women and children perished, as searchers combed waters for survivors.
> >
> > The Princess Ashika was heading from Nuku'alofa to Ha'afeva, in the Nomuka Islands group, when it issued a mayday call just before 11pm last night, quickly followed by the release of a distress beacon.
> >
> ...


Sounds so much like the Dona Paz.


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## DET63 (Aug 7, 2009)

Green Maned Lion said:


> DET63 said:
> 
> 
> > > A survivor has described how the Tongan ferry Princess Ashika overturned and all the women and children perished, as searchers combed waters for survivors.
> ...


Not quite that bad, but a reminder that travel in developing countries always has its inherent hazards, whether by boat, train, bus, plane, or on the back of an animal.


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## DET63 (Aug 11, 2009)

> Sounds so much like the Dona Paz.


More people died on the _Doña Paz_ than on the _Titanic_. Does this mean we should expect to see a blockbuster movie made about it?


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## Green Maned Lion (Aug 12, 2009)

DET63 said:


> > Sounds so much like the Dona Paz.
> 
> 
> More people died on the _Doña Paz_ than on the _Titanic_. Does this mean we should expect to see a blockbuster movie made about it?


I have often wondered why EVERYONE knows what the Titanic was, but nobody has ever heard of the Dona Paz! I know both disasters pretty well. Shipwrecks are an old hobby of mine.

Of course, the Titanic has a lot more star quality to it- super-luxurious ship, who's who list onboard, largest in the world, and supposedly unsinkable sinking on its maiden voyage to the sound of a full band playing.

The Dona Paz disaster is lot more macabre and a lot less... romantic? I've read reports, witness accounts, and so on that have turned my stomach on that one. The one I remember to this day, and still gives me nightmares thinking about it, was from one of the few survivors, translated as such: "One of my companions on the ship stood looking at the water, his family beside him. He looked at the water, deciding whether to die by burning on the ship, or by burning in the oily water. He then kisses his three children and his wife before quickly breaking their necks. He then, seemingly mortified by what he had to do in the name of love, jumped into the burning water below."

I've probably read that account a hundred times, and it still makes my hair stand on end.


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## DET63 (Aug 19, 2009)

I wonder if that story about the man killing his family on the _Doña Paz_ is true, especially considering that someone near to it would have had to have witnessed it—and then survived.


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## Green Maned Lion (Aug 19, 2009)

DET63 said:


> I wonder if that story about the man killing his family on the _Doña Paz_ is true, especially considering that someone near to it would have had to have witnessed it—and then survived.


A handful of people actually did survive, believe it or not. I have no idea whether the story is true, but I did find it in an actual official report. I had it quoted in a report I did on the disaster, which is where I found the quote again. I'm sure I still have a hard copy of the report somewhere. I don't throw away anything- I'm the worlds worst pack-rat. But its probably in a plastic container in a stack of other similar plastic containers that is among a group of same sitting in a closet or storage room somewhere down here in my parent's basement.

As to the veracity of the Philippine reports and the people they took statements of, I have no clue.


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## DET63 (Sep 25, 2009)

Out Of Tragedy, Blessings Multiplied: Lost Ambulance Is Replaced By Two



> Written: 9/22/2009
> When the _Princess Ashika_ ferry capsized en route to the Tongan Island of Vava'u in August, the hope of better medical care on the island went down with it. A supplies-filled ambulance, donated by the City of Sanger and United Methodist congregations in the California-Nevada Annual Conference, now rests alongside the ferry on the bottom of the Pacific Ocean.
> 
> The loss of the ambulance compounded a tragedy of epic proportions, when 73* people, including _all_ the women and children aboard the vessel, were killed. It would be difficult to find a Tongan untouched by the tragedy, and in fact, three Cal-Nev clergy lost members of their own families.
> ...


More at the link above.


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