Minister of Transportation and Communications Yeh Chu-lan (葉菊蘭) said yesterday that the search for a Hualien gravel ship that went missing over a year ago will resume so long as there are new clues.
Fielding questions at the Legislative Yuan, the legislator-turned-minister noted that naval mine sweepers might be mobilized under the orders of Defense Minister Wu Shih-wen (伍世文) in order to try to find the gravel ship.
The discovery this week of a life belt from the Hualien No. 1 has given new hope to the families of the missing crew and has prompted renewed calls from legislators for government efforts to find the ship.
Fan Li-ping (范麗萍), wife of the captain of the missing vessel, accompanied by Legislator Diane Lee (李慶安), displayed the life belt at a press conference on Tuesday, appealing for renewed search efforts by government-funded agencies.
According to Lee, she received the life belt Monday from an artist surnamed Hsieh who claimed that he found it on a beach between northern Taiwan's Chinshan and Shihmen one year ago.
The reclusive artist said that as he has neither a television nor a radio, he had no idea of current events in "the other world" he had escaped from, saying he simply hung the life belt on his wall after discovering it.
Hsieh only realized the life belt might provide clues into the disappearance of the vessel after a friend of his, who happened to see the televised press conference that was called late last month by the captain's wife and Lee to appeal for government help, visited the artist at his beach house and saw the life belt hanging on his wall.
The 6,000-tonne Hualien No. 1, with a crew of 21, went missing on Feb. 28 last year on its way from the eastern Taiwan port of Hualien to the port of Tamsui in northern Taiwan.
No one knows what happened that day as the ship did not send out any distress calls.
The only communication from the ship was a cellphone call by one of the officers to his family telling them that everything was fine and that the ship would be arriving in Tamsui on time and according to schedule, according to Lee.
The grieving and fatigued families of the 21 crewmen said they want to know whether the ship sank or was taken by pirates, but no answers have been forthcoming.
Yeh, who offered to resign last week to take political responsibility for the mishandling of the oil spill crisis off the coast of southern Taiwan's Kenting National Park but who was retained by Premier Chang Chun-hsiung(張俊雄), made clear the Ministry of Transportation and Communications' stance on the missing gravel ship case at the Legislative Yuan.
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