The captain of a fishing trawler has told the High Court he did not hear a large merchant ship sounding its warning whistle before the two boats collided off the Kerry coast.
Joaquin Maria Antelo Madale, captain of the 37-metre long Kirrixhi trawler, said he also received no radio communications from the 229-metre Hua Shen Hai bulk carrier.
The larger ship was on its way with a 44,000 tonne cargo of bauxite to Aughinish Alumina in Limerick when the collision occurred around midnight on the October 11ty, 2019, at about 24 nautical miles northwest of Inishtearagh Lighthouse on one of the Blasket Islands.
The vessel owners have sued each other for damages alleging negligence against each other.
Hua Sheng Hai Ltd, which had chartered the Hong Kong-registered bulk carrier from a subsidiary of the Chinese Cosco group, says the trawler skipper was not watching where he was going in what it alleges was the "worst possible watch-keeping standard".
MV Rochelaise de Peche SA, the Kirirxhi owners, say it was the bulk carrier which failed to keep a proper look out in circumstances where it spotted the trawler some distance away and failed to properly assess the trawler's position.
The bulk carrier failed to observe "give way" rules for fishing boats, failed to properly monitor the trawler movements and failed to have regard to the size of the Kirrixhi, it is claimed.
On the third day of the case, Captn Madale (59), who commanded the Kirrixhi until it was damaged in a fire shortly after the collision while under repair in Spain, gave evidence via video link and through a Spanish interpreter.
He told the Kirrixhi owners' counsel Glen Gibbons SC that there had been an engine problem, which was fixed, before the operation to put the nets into the sea commenced.
He told how he was overseeing what can be a dangerous operation involving the letting out of 650 metres of cable which, if it went wrong, could result in injury to a crew member or damage to gear.
The vessel had had its "not under command" lights on while being repaired and drifting and its "at fishing" lights on when it began to let out the nets, he said.
There were no communications from the merchant ship and the trawler's international radio channel was on at the time, he said. The Chinese ship was obliged under the rules of the sea to give way to boats which are fishing "like so many merchant ships which passed us by have done", he said.
Cross-examined by David Conlan Smyth SC, for the Hua Sheng Hai owners, about who was on lookout on the trawler that night, he said they did not have a lookout as all ten crew were needed in the fishing operation.
Counsel put it to him that he was engaged in a dangerous activity, and he was looking backwards but not forwards. Captn Madale said: "There were no boats at all on front of our vessel when we started setting the (fishing) gear, and we focussed our attention on that".
Counsel said "if you chose to look, you would have seen the Hua Sheng Hai". He replied that he could not say whether he would have seen it or not because he was working on setting the gear.
"But if I had seen it I would have tried to do some sort of manoeuvre", he said.
He also said he had seen the merchant ship seven miles away earlier and would have expected it to have seen them when they started fishing, he said.
The case continues.
