A semi-submersible tourist boat near the coast of Kenting struggled to return to the surface when its captain suddenly collapsed in the cabin foaming at the mouth on Friday last week.
According to tourists, 41 people were on board, each having purchased a NT$350 ticket, to view the underwater scenery near Hongchaikeng (紅柴坑).
The tour around the coast 1km from shore was to last 40 minutes, but the ship started listing from side to side not five minutes after departure, the tourists said.
One of the tourists, named Hu Shu-chen (胡淑真), went to the cabin to see what the matter was, and saw the captain, Lin Chun-mao (林春茂), foaming at the mouth and slowly collapsing onto the floor.
None of the captain’s aides at the back of the ship had noticed anything wrong, the tourists said.
Hu shouted that there was something wrong with the captain, and some of the passengers used cellphones to report the incident, while others started looking for life vests.
One of the passengers, Chen Li-ling (陳莉玲), a retired nurse, suspected the captain might have suffered a stroke.
It can be seen from footage recorded by Hu that Lin stuck to his post after being revived and slowly brought the ship back to port.
Lin was sent to Hengchun Nanmen Hospital immediately after arriving at the port. After examining Lin, doctors found no evidence of alcoholic intoxication and deduced that Lin fainted due to low a blood sugar level, possibly due to his history of oral cancer.
Shipping company vice-president Hung Shu-yi (洪淑儀) said that Lin is an experienced captain as he had been a fisherman prior to taking a job with the company.
Hung said that Lin had had a slight cold and had taken some medication at noon, adding that it was the fourth trip he had made that day.
The crew called the Coast Guard Administration after being alerted to the situation, but Lin had been revived before the arrival of help and piloted the ship back to port, Hung said.
Meanwhile, Hu said that the company’s lack of security or a contingency plan for this sort of occurrence was alarming.
Despite the presence of two other crew members, only the captain knew how to pilot the ship, Hu said, adding that the captain had also failed to show tourists how to put on life vests in case of emergency.
The lack of sirens or other methods to call for help made the ship a death trap in times of emergency, Hu said.
Hu further complained about the attitudes of representatives of the company, saying that there was no offer of compensation and that the company had already been paid for the trip.
Pingtung County Department of Agriculture’s division of fisheries said it had dispatched a team to inspect submergible boats last week, adding that it had not found any serious infringements to safety protocols.
Regulations state that wearing life vests is not mandatory, but the information on where they can be found should be announced before the start of a voyage, the division said, adding that for every ship under 20 tonnes, one crew member apart from the captain, who knew how to dock the ship and call for help was required.
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