Former crewman 'shocked' fishing boat 'went down'

The skipper of L'Ecume II was "very on it" with safety onboard, the court heard

An ex-worker of a skipper killed in a collision between a fishing trawler and a ferry has said he was "shocked" to hear it was L'Ecume II "that went down" as Michael Michieli was very knowledgeable.

Lewis Peter Carr, 30, and Artur-Sevash Zade, 35, deny three counts of gross negligence manslaughter after the deaths of Mr Michieli and his crew members Larry Simyunn and Jervis Baligat, who all died when their boat collided with a Condor freight ferry.

In a statement to Jersey's Royal Court, Samuel Davies said Mr Michieli was "very on it with his safety awareness".

However, Mr Davies said he had never seen Mr Michieli wear a life jacket "because he was old school".

He explained he himself would wear one because he had a child.

He said Mr Michieli was "like a stern father" telling him what to do for safety reasons and that he knew the boat "inside out" when making repairs and keeping it "in good order".

Former L'Ecume II crew member Daniel Bordei, appearing in court, told jurors the order of the boat and onboard safety were "very strict".

He said everything would be put back in the "same place" with a reminder of training every three to four months.

'People need to see you'

Mr Bordei told jurors the green-over-white lights, used for fishing, would be put "on all [the] time... as extra safety".

He said the fishing lights would be switched on in the harbour or after leaving in the dark as "people need to see you" and that Mr Michieli was responsible for lighting.

"I never touched the fishing lights during the night or during the morning," he told the court.

During questioning from the defence, the court heard Mr Bordei had said in his police statement in 2023 that "Mick would be confident that bigger boats would change their course to avoid a collision".

On Wednesday, the court heard Mr Michieli was worried about collisions with large boats at sea and would always put his fishing lights on at night as protection.

Mr Davies said turning the lights on outside a fishing ground was "against the rules" as it gave other boats "false information" and that he would not have them on when not fishing but he could not remember what Mr Michieli did.

The second officer in charge of the Goodwill before Mr Carr took over said fishing vessels would "just use them all the time and they shouldn't be" regarding fishing lights.

Philip Ablett is the first person who was employed by Condor Ferries at the time to give evidence in the trial.

He said the rules stated "you should only display those lights when you are engaged in fishing" but vessels "just do what they want to do".

Mr Ablett said under regulations for preventing collisions, fishing lights meant he must and would give way.

The Commodore Goodwill was the vessel involved in the collision with L'Ecume II in 2022

At the time of the collision, Mr Ablett said he remembered being woken from his rest break by a "shudder down the ship and a bang".

Mr Ablett told the trial he first knew something serious had happened when the ship's captain made a man overboard announcement, adding it had ended with the words "this is not a drill".

He said the Goodwill launched its rescue boat and carried out about two hours of searching, finding a small piece of wood and focusing on an area which had a "strong smell of diesel".

When returning, Mr Ablett said he went to comfort Mr Carr with "a big hug" and to reassure him.

He said Mr Carr had appeared "shellshocked" and said he had done "everything I could" by sounding five "short and rapid" horns to alert L'Ecume II.

Michael Michieli, Jervis Ramirez Baligat and Larry Simyunn died in the collision with a Condor freight ferry in 2022

Louis Jackson, Fresh Fish company owner, said on the morning of the collision Mr Michieli was "wide awake" and "well up for going fishing".

Mr Jackson said he had been working on Victoria Pier before he saw Mr Michieli arrive with Mr Simyunn and Mr Baligat at about 04:00 GMT.

The men "had a good natter" and noted "what a beautiful morning" it was.

Mr Jackson said: "There wasn't a breath of wind. Michael's mood that morning reflected that.

"It was just a normal day of fishing for Michael."

Mayday response

The court heard when the ferry Commodore Goodwill reported the collision, it did not enact the conventional mayday response.

John Thelland, the only watch officer at the Ports of Jersey and for the coastguard on the morning of the collision, said he received a call from the ferry at 05:39 GMT on Channel 82, where they had been communicating 10 minutes prior about entering Jersey's territorial waters.

Mr Thelland said Channel 82 was used for vessels to communicate directly to the coastguard.

He said an emergency call would usually "start with someone saying 'mayday'" three times on Channel 16, but the ferry began by identifying itself to the coastguard on Channel 82.

He said the call "did alert me" to the serious incident, but that Channel 16 alerts more than just the coastguard in an emergency and that "everyone should be" listening to it. He added the channel had a "more powerful signal" than Channel 82.

Once receiving the information that L'Ecume II needed "assistance", Mr Thelland said he then tried to call the fishing trawler "at 45 minutes past to try and get hold of them" but received no response.

He noted the system showed the vessel with a "red cross through it to show it wasn't being received anymore".

Prior to the call, Mr Thelland said he had gone to the toilet and, once he returned, had noticed the two vessels "on top of each other" on the radar system.

He said he zoomed in on the targets on the AIS system "because I wanted to see how close they had actually come".

He said he was not aware at that point but was "surprised or slightly alarmed that that had transpired".

Mr Thelland at the time said he believed it was "a near-miss" and planned to write a report to give to Ports of Jersey.

The trial continues.