Episode 66 - Pasha Bulker (ft. Josie Spicer)
[Pre-intro segment]
Tanner: The past few weeks have seen massive rollbacks on civil rights in the United States. In the most widely-covered of these is the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe versus Wade, the 1973 Court decision that protected the right to abortion at the federal level. In conjunction with this, trans healthcare, voting rights, and the separation of church and state are all under attack. These aren’t separate issues, but interconnected fronts in the same wider struggle for freedom. Both Taylor and I live in states where the future status of abortion is up in the air, and bans are being actively pursued by state legislators. We’ll always support the right to safe and accessible abortion care, and portions of our Patreon donations will be going to support organizations who are doing the work to keep this fundamental right available to Americans. And, now on with the show.
[Radio chatter intro audio]
Tanner: Hey everybody and welcome to Beyond the Breakers, a podcast about shipwrecks, loss, and lessons learned from maritime disasters. I’m Tanner, joined as usual by Taylor. Uh, first we’d like to thank our new Patrons, Kelly, Michael, Disco Volante, and Daniel. As always, we appreciate your support and we sincerely hope you continue to enjoy the show. We love seeing everyone on Patreon and we love that you’re enjoying what we do and we wanna keep doing it for you. So with that, uh, now we need to introduce the 3rd member of the show today, so put on your finest Reg Grundys and give a warm welcome to Australian podcasting hall-of-famer Josie Spicer.
Josie: Hi guys, thanks for having me. Thank you, thank you for letting me invite myself onto your show.
Taylor: [laughs]
Tanner: No, that was cool, that was cool. I think it’d be much easier if all of our, if all guest hosts just did that. Say “hey, this is what I’m doing and I’m coming on your show.”
Josie: [laughs]
Tanner: Also, thank you for your flexibility in pushing back our recording time today.
Josie: Yeah, that’s okay, all good.
Tanner: Hoping not to hear on the next episode of A Hill to Die On, “is it okay to postpone something 10 minutes before it happens?”
Taylor and Josie: [laugh]
Josie: No, I’ll just trash talk you folks the whole time. It’s fine.
Tanner: Alright, so I guess we’ll do our normal thing. We have our media / I don’t know, current events check in. What’s everyone been up to?
Taylor: Not much here. I don’t know, work. Um, bad things in the news. Nothing constructive I guess I could say, but uh, I don’t know. Just trying to get through it right now, right?
Tanner: Yeah, that’s what you gotta do. Josie, how about you?
Josie: Oh, well, uh, I was expecting you folks to be very bleak with the whole Roe v. Wade overturn, so I made a positive media check-in. [laughs]
Taylor: Nice!
Josie: Yeah, so my media check-in is actually Beyond the Breakers. Getting real meta. Yeah, I guess I just wanted to start off by saying I love how this podcast like, the podcast topic of wrecks and maritime disasters is quite narrow in the face of it, but it’s been a great way to learn more about broader history and politics of the world, you know, learning a little bit more about like, Jesuits in Japan? Like, that’s not a thing I would have come across. And yeah, like when you folks are able to put these incidents into context there’s actually quite a lot more to be learned than what happened to the vessel itself. And yeah, I guess from a personal standpoint, I’ve also enjoyed being able to like geek-out at ships. Between your show and other podcasts like Black Box Down, which looks at flight incidents, I’ve been able to enjoy topics that, at least in the time and place of where I grew up, you know, planes and trains and ships are quite gendered interests, and I wasn’t like forbidden from learning about these things, but it certainly wasn’t encouraged, and were being considered a bit uncouth, I guess. Yeah, so now I’m an adult I’m able to learn about all these things in a really accessible way, and I just wanted to say thank you.
Taylor: Awesome.
Tanner: Aww!
Taylor: It’s great to have you on.
Tanner: Yeah, thank you. Thank you, that’s all great to hear.
Josie: It doesn’t help your listeners, but yeah.
Tanner: No, that’s awesome. It’s great to hear, we just like to hear things that make us feel good.
Taylor: Yeah, I just like hearing people say nice things about it.
Josie: Ah, good. [laughs]
Tanner: I mean, for me, I still don’t think trains are very cool. I know half our listeners are going to pillory me for that, but…
Taylor: [laughs] Me.
Tanner: I’m getting there. I didn’t think ships were all that cool like 2 years ago, so. Yeah, for me, I guess what have I been up to? Once again, a lot of doomscrolling…
Taylor and Josie: …mm-hmm.
Tanner: …too much of that probably. But yeah, listening to a lot of podcasts. I actually went through uh, Lions Led By Donkeys, some of the old ones that for whatever reason I just like, had skipped over for some reason. So I did some clean-up there.
Taylor: Our Podcast Father Joe Kassabian.
Tanner: Yeah, I mean, that was probably one of the most uh, progenitor ideas for the podcast.
Josie: Ohh, cool. In case your listeners don’t know, I had Joe Kassabian from Lions Led By Donkeys on an episode of A Hill To Die On where I uh, we chatted about Scared Straight programs and how awful they are. Um, so if any listeners want to get really f****n’ depressed, but then also laugh about farts, that might be a good episode for you to dive into.
Taylor: [laughs]
Tanner: That was a very good one, that whole series of episodes has been good on the, you know, reality TV type stuff.
Josie: Yeah. It was great in that episode to hear, anytime people talk about the D.A.R.E. program is enjoyable.
Josie: Mm-hmm.
Taylor: [laughs]
Tanner: As someone who still remembers the songs we would sing, like the “D-I won’t do drugs. A-won’t have an attitude.”
Josie: [laughs]
Tanner: Yeah, that was great to hear people talk about that, so. Alright, well I guess that brings us to the order of the day. This is episode 66 we’re recording here of Beyond the Breakers. Uh, we’re gonna talk about a ship called the Pasha Bulker and Josie is gonna tell us all about it.
Josie: Yes. So, I figured I’d just like give you folks a breakdown of how I’m gonna go through this episode. So first, I’ll introduce the ship. I’ll introduce Newcastle, Australia where the incident occurred. I’ll give a rundown of the incident itself along with the rescue efforts, the salvage operation, and then finally the more lighter side: the cultural impact of the Pasha Bulker. So, the ship and crew. For this episode I’ve come to talk to you about a bulk carrier currently known as MV Xanthia, previously known as MV Drake, but its initial and most well known name was Pasha Bulker, which is what I’ll be using in this episode. Um, at the time of the incident, Pasha Bulker had only been on the water for less than a year. Panama was its flag of convenience, but the ship was owned by a Japanese company. Pasha Bulker had a gross weight of 40,000 tons, the length, and by the way, for you’se Yanks, I’ve gone ahead and converted as much as I could to cater to your imperial impediment [laughs]...
Taylor and Tanner: [laughs]
Josie: …so yeah, Pasha Bulker was 225 meters in length, or 738 feet. Had a molded breadth of around 32 meters, or 105 feet, and had a molded breadth of 19.8 meters, or 65 feet. Its crew capacity was 22. At the time of the incident, Pasha Bulker was on its 3rd call to Newcastle, Australia. Most of the ship’s crew had been on board for the 9 months since the ship was delivered to its owner the previous year. The Master and Chief Engineer on the ship was South Korean and the remaining crew were from the Philippines and English was the working-language on the ship. The Master had graduated from a South Korean maritime university in 1982 and had been on the sea since he’s sailed on many different ship types before the incident, and had also commanded bulk carriers larger than Pasha Bulker. I said most of the ship's crew had been on board for the 9 months since it was delivered to its, but um, the master was not of these people. This was his first assignment with the ship’s managers and he joined the ship only 1 month before the incident, and it was his first visit to Newcastle as Master.
So, Newcastle, Australia. I’ll be referring to the area where the Pasha Bulker incident occurred by its settler-colonial name of Newcastle, but this area was known as Malubimba by the traditional custodians, the Awabakal and Worimi people, for thousands of years before being called Newcastle. It’s situated on the east coast of Australia in the state of New South Wales. Its port mostly handles bulk cargos and coal-exports comprise over 90 percent of the port’s trade, exceeding 80 million tons for the financial year ending in June 2007. It is the world's largest loading-port for coal, with ⅔ of which is destined for Japan.
Tanner: I have a question.
Josie: Yeah, go for it.
Tanner: I was reading about the coal here, and I had to wonder, is this a coincidence or was it named Newcastle because of the coal?
Taylor: I was wondering the same thing. [laughs]
Josie: Oh, is…
Tanner: …since Newcastle in England is such a big coal spot.
Josie: Oh, shoot, I did not know that, and so I cannot answer that question for you, but that would be…
Tanner: …I was thinking it would be such, it would be a massive coincidence if it just happened to also have coal, so yeah I was gonna ask and see if that was something you knew. Cause when I saw it talking about coal and Newcastle, I was like, I was briefly like, transported, like where are we in the world right now?
Taylor and Josie: [laugh]
Tanner: So yeah, cool. That’s interesting.
Josie: Yeah, I wouldn’t be surprised but also like, I don’t know, if you get some Brits calling things other things it’s, you’re gonna get a Newcastle with coal out of it. Maybe.
Tanner: That’s true.
Josie: But I don’t know. I don’t know, that would actually be really interesting to find out. The population of Newcastle itself sits at about 155,000. So, the Newcastle anchorage was a bloody mess at the time of the incident. Um, the queueing system was first in, best dressed, with absolutely minimal scheduling or coal allocation. The number of ships in the anchorage could reach absurdly high numbers with 57 being the number of ships queued when the Pasha Bulker incident occurred. But this was nowhere near as high as it would get. The anchorage itself was fully exposed to the weather, with deep water near the coast compelling ships to anchor fairly close to the coast. Weather conditions, particularly the swell, are known to deteriorate rapidly, and there have been serious incidents in the past with Newcastle anchorage, one of these being a grounding of Sygna on Stockton beach which resulted in an actual wreck back in 1974, and the other 2 incidents were collisions. East coast lows, which was what was happening at the time of the incident, bring gale or storm-force winds with heavy coastal rain, very rough seas, and prolonged, heavy swells. Uhh, it’s quite challenging to predict the location and movement of the center of these lows, so the Bureau of Meteorology aims to give sufficient advance notice to mariners, so they can take whatever precautions are necessary. So, these…like, the exposure to adverse weather at Newcastle anchorage and the potential risks are well recognized and guidance and instructions on how to account for these risks are part of sailing direction publications, such as the Australian Pilot, which was on board the Pasha Bulker at the time of the incident. This leads me to the section I have called “What the F**k Happened Here?”
[all laugh]
Josie: So. Did you receive my email at all with the images?
Tanner: Uhh, let’s see. I am guilty of not checking. I don’t think so? Unless they went to…spam! That’s where they are.
Josie: Cool. Okay. I was like, someone’s just gonna get a whole lot of pics of ships.
Taylor: [laughs]
Tanner: Ohh, very nice. Yes, we have the pictures now.
Josie: Okay, so, I’ve just got figure 14 now, just so you can kind of visualize everything that I’m about to read out. Let me know when you’re ready to go.
Taylor: I’m good, I got it up.
Josie: You’re good? Cool.
Tanner: I was just thinking about the name Nobbys Beach here.
Taylor and Josie: [laugh]
Tanner: I’m ready to go.
Taylor: There’s so many good names.
Josie: I had to, yeah. I had to uh, I was very restrained while writing.
Taylor and Tanner: [laugh]
Josie: So, what the f**k [13:08] happened here? A lot of this information I got directly from the official report into the Pasha Bulker incident that was released by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, or A.T.S.B. I’ll send you folks all my sources, so if anyone wants to have a gander, they can. I’ve also sent you folks figure 14 from the report which shows Pasha Bulker’s Mr. Bean-ass heading towards Nobby’s Beach where it was grounded. So let’s find out what the f**k happened here. Pasha Bulker arrived off the coast of Newcastle on the 23rd of May, 2007. The weather was good, the Master of the ship anchored further from the shore than was required, with sufficient swinging room. The Master stated to the investigators that anchorage was good, with good holding ground, but appeared to not have considered the risks of the weather-exposed location. Nor was he aware of guidance provided in publications on board the ship, such as the aforementioned Australian Pilot, which addressed Newcastle anchorage and local weather specifically. In fact, it turned out that the passage planned for the voyage to Newcastle that had been prepared by the Second Mate did not include any references to local weather. The Master had not signed his approval of the plan, and the Chief Mate had not acknowledged reading it. Do you folks sense any red flags yet? Am I being obvious?
Taylor: [laughs]
Tanner: We’ve uh, we’ve had stories where people have totally ignored the weather and they’re usually fine.
Josie: [laughs] that’s why they’re on your podcast?
Taylor: Yeah, exactly, cause they did such a great job.
Josie: [laughs] it’s the Well Done, Ship podcast. Yes.
Taylor: [laughs]
Josie: Um, so now we skip to the 7th of June, the Master noted the weather forecast and gale warning, but failed to note the caveat in the forecast which stated that wind gusts could be 40 percent stronger than the average wind speed forecast, and that maximum waves could be twice as high. He did, as a precaution, feed additional anchor cable and confirmed that the main engine could be used at short notice. He napped during the day as he anticipated the need to monitor the weather at night. Since the Pasha Bulker was a new ship, he believed the anchor’s holding power was particularly good, with 11 shackles of cable deployed and that the anchor would hold in winds of up to 50 knots, or um, 92 ks an hour, or 57 miles an hour. Knowing what I’ve already told you, can you detect just like, in the last 2 sections there in regards to the anchor and the warnings, any red flags?
Tanner: Taylor, you’re the ship guy.
Josie: It’s okay. You don’t have to get it right…
Taylor: …uhh, are we gonna be in a dragging of the anchor situation in a second?
Josie: Oh, a hundred percent. [laughs]
Taylor: Uh, that’s my big concern. That’s a lot of wind force on this vessel. It will drag that anchor.
Josie: I probably didn’t tie it together as well as I had in my head, but, the Master, you know, he had accounted for this anger, uh…anchor holding up to 50 knots, but um, he didn’t know about the whole winds being up to 40 percent stronger than forecast situation. So, yeah. Even though he thought he calculated it correctly…no, man. No.
Tanner: I, uh, I did have to look this up, cause I noted that in the report, and it said it was measuring the amount of anchor in shackles?...
Josie: …what?
Tanner: …and I had no idea what that meant.
Taylor: I don’t either, I have no clue.
Tanner: So I had to look this up. I learned a new measurement today. One shackle is equal to 15 fathoms.
Josie: Right.
Taylor: Wow.
Josie: Okay. Okay.
Tanner: Which would be 90 feet, or 27 and a half meters. So. There we are.
Taylor: [laughs]
Tanner: That’s a shackle.
Josie: Lots of conversions today. [laughs]
Taylor: Lots of conversions.
Josie: Oh man. So, at this point, the Master believed that it was best to remain at anchor, as he was concerned that putting the Pasha Bulker to sea in heavy weather would make it difficult to maneuver. However, he didn’t consider taking additional…do you say “ballast?” Is that…?
Tanner: Yep.
Taylor: Yeah.
Josie: Yeah, yeah cool. Additional ballast, nor filling the ship’s fore and aft peak tanks. He had no plan to depart the anchorage at any particular time, or if the wind reached a particular speed. He made an early decision to take no further action unless he was compelled to, or in the case of the anchor dragging, which is a very good plan. The investigators determined that this was based on his inadequate understanding of anchor holding power, heavy weather ballast, and limitations of the Newcastle anchorage in adverse weather conditions.
Taylor: It’s really interesting actually, um, like I know here, like the U.S. Navy for example, if there’s a hurricane on the east coast, they’ll go ahead and send their ships out into the ocean. Like, for this exact reason…
Josie: …ohhh.
Taylor: …if you’re 30 or 40 miles out to sea, you just ride it out, you know, it’s a modern vessel, it’ll be fine unless you’re the El Faro and you sail directly into the middle of it.
Josie: [laughs]
Taylor: But, um, you don’t wanna be like right off shore for this exact reason…
Josie: …yes.
Taylor: …and then gee, you get that fun picture where you see the beach and you see a big ship that shouldn’t be there.
Josie: Yes. [laughs] So good. The photos of the Pasha Bulker incident just, they make me laugh, especially because I know no one died, so umm, it’s just ridiculous. So, it was also determined that confirmation bias informed his decision to stay put, as very few ships in the anchorage put to sea during the evening of the 7th. The Master also incorrectly assumed that the Vessel Traffic Information Centre, or VTIC, would instruct ships to put to sea. By 1am on the 8th of June, the wind was at gale force and increasing. Pasha Bulker’s yawing had increased, swell had increased, and the atmospheric pressure had fallen markedly. Weather reports and warnings continued to confirm deteriorating conditions, and a number of ships started dragging their anchors. The situation was becoming significantly worse, and the Master appears to have ignored these warnings, further suggesting a confirmation bias. Sorry, can you hear that water in the background?
Taylor: No.
Josie: Okay, good.
Tanner: It seems appropriate for a shipwreck podcast though.
Josie: [laughs]
Taylor: Yeah, it would be soothing.
Josie: Ambience. Right. It’s definitely not just someone flushing the toilet.
Taylor and Tanner: [laugh]
Josie: Umm. [laughs] The investigators found that he definitely wasn’t the only Master who had been susceptible to confirmation bias and incorrectly assumed that VTIC would instruct them to put to sea, as they found of the 57 ships anchored at Newcastle, only several put to sea in view of the deteriorating weather, and before the onset of gale force winds. At the 1am mark on the 8th of June, when the winds were consistently at gale force, 49 ships still remained at anchor. Most ships only got underway after dragging their anchors, and less than ⅓ of the Masters indicated that they already had, or then took on heavy weather ballast. Putting to sea before the onset of gale force winds and deteriorating weather was the recommended course of action detailed in the Australian Pilot, and we know now that no one looked at the Australian Pilot.
Taylor and Tanner: [laugh]
Josie: People should read the Australian Pilot if they’re in the f****ng ocean off of Australia.
Taylor: [laughs]
Josie: Now we skip to 5am. The wind was at a strong gale force, and the ship nearest to Pasha Bulker started dragging its anchor. Other ships were also finally getting under way, and more than half of the ships in the anchorage had already departed. These events prompted the Pasha Bulker’s Master to remain on the bridge, but not to weigh anchor or put to sea. 9:25am, Pasha Bulker’s anchor, predictably, started to drag. It was only when the Master was certain that the anchor was dragging that he decided to bring it in. At 7:10am, the anchor was weighed in the difficult conditions. The Master’s frequent use of the main engine and helm indicated that he took adequate measures to prevent damage to the equipment. He appears to not have been concerned by the ship’s progress towards the coast, as the anchor dragged more rapidly when the cable shortened while it was being heaved in.
Taylor: I feel like he should be concerned about that.
Josie: I feel like he should. Um, I am starting to suspect this gentleman was born without eyes.
Taylor and Tanner: [laugh]
Josie: At this point in their report, the investigators report that the Master had been awake for most of the night monitoring the weather. He decided to remain awake during the night to monitor the weather rather than defining limits, such as wind speed or time. He’d only had 2 hours of sleep in the prior 24 hours leading up to the time that the anchor was weighed in on the 8th of June. There was obviously going to be a knock on effect that the Master had little sleep, and his later actions and decisions were being influenced by fatigue to some degree. Holy sh*t.
Taylor: [laughs] As someone who works overnight, um, lack of sleep is not great for your decision making, especially in something like that. It’s awful…
Josie: …yeah.
Taylor: …you know, you just, you’re processing slower, um, a lot of studies even show that it’s the same as basically being drunk, like you process things slower, you don’t make as good decisions. It’s uh, it’s definitely a known thing.
Josie: Yeah, absolutely. And, just like, I feel like, again, I believe at the start of the episode, I don’t know if we were recording yet, you folks are saying everything leads back to capitalism, and it’s like, yeah…
Taylor and Tanner: [laugh]
Josie: …like the pressures, and you know, needing to save as much fuel and not damage the ship and all this stuff. So many accidents occurred due to fatigue. Rest will cure everything. Except for the case where the Master goes to breakfast in the Pasha Bulker incident, which I’ll get to in a sec. By the time the anchor was reported to be aweigh, the ship was 1.9 kilometers, or 1.2 miles from the coast. By the time the anchor was secure and the crew had cleared the deck, the ship was only 1.6 kilometers or 0.9 miles away. The Master appeared untroubled by the high-risk situation they found themselves in [laughs]. At 8:09am, the Master asked the Third Mate if the harbor was closed, indicating that he was uncertain about the status of the port and the situation of it. He did, however, turn the ship away from the coast, and engine speed was increased to maneuvering full ahead, although its speed fluctuated in the heavy sea conditions. At 8:20, Pasha Bulker was slowly moving away from the coast. The Master did note that the nearby ship Sea Confidence was in difficulty at the time, and taking additional ballast. He commented that the weather was “very rough” but he remarked to the Chief Mate that Pasha Bulker’s stability was “good”. It was not good.
Taylor and Tanner: [laugh]
Josie: At 8:26, the Master ordered a course change to make better progress away from the coast. However, as soon as the ship was steadied on this heading, he left the bridge for breakfast. The investigators noted that under these circumstances, leaving the bridge without even confirming the effect of the course alteration suggests a lack of caution on the Master’s part, that he was not fully aware of the possible danger the ship was in. Considering there was a dangerous lee shore 1 mile, or 1.6 km away.
Tanner: I’m thinking of some episodes, there’s at least one episode I know of of Black Box Down, and / or Take to the Sky where the Captain has the Co-Pilot do something and then leaves to go to the bathroom or something, and like…
Taylor: …mm-hmm.
Josie: …right!
Tanner: … I’m gonna be gone for like 5 minutes, tops. Just, keep it going here.
Taylor: Don’t mess this up.
Josie: [laughs]
Tanner: And that’s when it happens.
Taylor: [laughs]
Josie: Yes. At this point, the investigators suggest that he may have been denying or flat-out rejecting information, um, which conflicted with his expectations and decisions. So like, he’s probably seeing the shore and is just like, “no, no it’s not. That’s not land.” [laughs]
Tanner: Typical man. Hmm.
Taylor and Josie: [laugh]
Josie: Right?
Taylor: Bringing that back to like Black Box Down and stuff, it kind of um, makes me think of a lot of those issues where people don’t trust their instruments…
Josie: …yes.
Taylor: …and how you can’t visually rely on a lot of things when you’re flying, and sort of the same situation here like, how different does land look when you’re 2 miles away vs 3 miles away. Like you don’t really know.
Josie: Right. Yeah, that’s actually, that’s a really good thing, I don’t think I could sort of figure that out eyeballing it. No, that’s a lot of [laughs], like I was saying before, this is the first ship report I’ve ever read, and the amount of tie-in with like, um, air crash investigations and like, aircraft incidents, yeah it’s always the same things and it’s always the case where it’s like, all these little decisions compounding to creating this like, total shit storm.
Taylor: Exactly.
Josie: Yeah. So the Chief Mate and Third Mate were on the bridge during the 15 minutes that the Master was at breakfast, and it was only during this time that there was any evidence that they were involved in monitoring the ship’s navigation.
Tanner: [laughs]
Josie: Incredible. Incredible areas. [laughs] While reading this, I was reading this report in my lounge room and I just like yelped and squealed a few times and like, cackled, and my son kept getting annoyed with me because I’d be silent for ages and then I’d like out a shriek when I’m like “you f*****g idiot!”
[all laugh]
Josie: Oh man. So yeah, for the most part, they merely watched as the events unfolded and had little input or interaction with the Master other than responding to his orders. Following breakfast, the Master returned to the bridge and became more concerned [laughs] sorry. Became more concerned when he saw that the heading of 140 degrees had fallen to 110 degrees to port. So this is when we start with the Mr. Bean movements on that little map I gave you before.
Taylor and Tanner: [laugh]
Josie: He asked for an increase in engine speed, and this appeared to have the desired effect. The Master relaxed and told the Engineer that a further increase in speed was unnecessary. The Helmsman brought the ship back to a heading of 140 degrees, and with the wind to head, had this been maintained, the Pasha Bulker would not, like, would probably have cleared the coast in an easterly direction and everything would be fine. So on a heading of 140 degrees, the 30 degree change in the ship’s heading from 110 and the increase in engine speed had a positive effect, but this was apparently not enough for our genius ship Master, as he did not want the ship to head any further north, and this wasn’t exactly explained why he didn’t want it to go any further north, but I’m guessing probably fuel usage and like…
Taylor: …mm-hmm.
Josie: …yeah. Doesn’t wanna get further away, especially with the first in, best dressed queue system. So, because he didn’t wanna go any further north, he ordered the Helmsman to make a heading of 160 degrees, putting the wind on the port…do you say “b-ow” [rhyming with cow] or “bo” [rhyming with crow]? I had this argument with my husband [laughs] I don’t know what it is.
Taylor: [laughs] “bow” [rhyming with cow].
Josie: Bow.
Tanner: All of these great opportunities to convince Josie that Americans say things that we don’t actually say…
Taylor: …that’s actually great fun…
Josie: …noo, that’s so mean!
[all laugh]
Tanner: But, yeah, bow.
Josie: Oh no, now I’m gonna get paranoid. I won’t ask you again! [laughs] Um, but yeah, so putting the wind on the port bow, now the investigators noted that this might have been an okay decision to make at the time, but given the conditions, this maneuver should have been carefully controlled by the Master himself. In response to the 160 degree order, the Helmsman applied maximum starboard rudder, and the ship’s head went through the wind and rapidly starboard. At 9:09, the ship’s heading was well past 160 degrees [laughs]. The Helmsman informed the Master when he could no longer control the ship’s heading, even with maximum port rudder.
Taylor: That has to be a bad, bad feeling to hear that. “I can’t control it.”
Josie: [laughs] “I’m out man, I can’t do this.”
[all laugh]
Tanner: I start like, mentally making my will when it's icy and my car doesn’t quite stop in time at the stop sign, and so like, I drive a Honda Civic, so if I lost control of a bulk freighter, I think I would be a little bit more upset.
Josie: [laughs] right? Yep, I can totally fucking relate to that.
Taylor: [laughs]
Josie: Oh my gosh, just the amount of like, from what I can tell it’s like this weird mix of overconfidence but also not wanting to rise above your place in the hierarchy as well, so it’s like…
Taylor: …it’s similar to what you were saying how familiar the story sounds to anyone who listens to the air crash-type stuff, and it’s like we say so much, it’s the crew or bridge resource management of someone who’s a subordinate not being empowered to like stand up and be like, “this is wrong, this shouldn’t be happening…”
Josie: …100 percent.
Taylor: “...we need to fix this.”
Josie: Exactly, and especially because so many, like so many of the crew are very experienced crewmen, so they would be seeing this being like “errr, I don’t know…this doesn’t feel right. Should we be that close to land? I don’t think so.”
Tanner: How do you tell your Captain like, “sir, we’re gonna hit Australia.”
Taylor: I’m waiting for the Bluey Pasha Bulker episode where Bluey learns crew resource management.
Tanner: [laughs]
Josie: Okay, I’m like storing that away in my head cause…
Taylor: [laughs]
Josie: …that is the intersection of everything that I would spend too much time on. [laughs] Amazing. So at 9:09am after the ship’s heading was well past 160 degrees, the Helmsman informs the master when he could no longer control the ship’s heading, even with maximum port rudder. In response, the Master told him that he should “take action quickly.” But the Master did not change the way he was conning the ship. He wasn’t giving rudder orders, monitoring the Helmsman’s action, nor delegating a Mate to monitor the helm. He simply just said: “Take action quickly!”
Taylor: Amazing.
[all laugh]
Tanner: He’s the kid holding the stick saying “do something” like, it’s just…[laughs]
Josie: Yes! Yes! [laughs] The investigators noted that this order to “take action quickly” probably only served to confuse the Helmsman. I agree with them. [laughs] Soon after this, while the ship was approaching the coast on the southwesterly heading, the Master of the ship responded to a query from VTIC with “don’t worry”. However, many worry.
[all laugh]
Josie: At this point, then he asked the Chief Engineer to increase engine speed further. At this point the Helmsman was still attempting to return to a heading of 160 degrees, his last order received, um, by applying maximum port rudder. At 9:23am, the ship’s heading was approaching 180 degrees when the Helmsman briefly reduced port rudder, possibly because he did not want to overshoot the ordered heading again after the Master’s earlier remark. The Master most likely did not observe the brief reduction of applied rudder, but he became very concerned when a swing to starboard developed, and asked for the maximum engine speed once more. Four minutes later, at 9:27, the Master declined an offer of VTIC assistance again by advising that the situation would improve after 10 minutes.
Tanner: [laughs]
Josie: Investigators noted that communication was very poor before the Master and bridge team members, with no discussion about the situation at hand occurring.
Taylor: That’s gonna be a bad time.
Josie: I just don’t think that’s the right way. I’m not an expert, but I just don’t think that’s very good. [laughs] At 9:31, the ship’s heading was 185 degrees and turning slowly to port. For the first time throughout this entire incident, one of the Mates suggested to the Master that he should accept assistance. This possibly confused the Master because he decided instead to turn the ship starboard towards the lee shore. It is unlikely that he considered or had time to consider all the risks involved. The report didn’t elaborate on how the Mate’s comment confused him, but at this point I’ve just written the Master off as a f*****g loose unit. So, whatever…
Taylor and Tanner: [laugh]
Josie: …of course he was confused. No one on the bridge at any time discussed the emergency deployment of anchors, it’s unlikely that anyone even considered using anchors to turn the ship’s head into the wind, and thereby reducing its progress towards the coast. When the Master decided to turn starboard, he, for the first time since the ship got underway, gave rudder orders, only because he could not order a course to steer. As the ship turns, it closes on the coast rapidly. At 9:35, 7 minutes after VTIC offered assistance that the Master declined, the engine shut down. This increased the Master’s anxiety and in his speech on the ship’s recording, he started to sound distressed. Finally.
Taylor: [laughs]
Josie: While the engine shutdown didn’t help or hinder at this time, the shutdown did bring the Master’s attention to the fact that the Pasha Bulker was approaching the shore at a distance of 1.3 kms or 0.8 miles at 5.5 knots, which is 10 kms an hour or 6.3 miles an hour, and at this point he ordered the engine full stern. Um, okay. So I wrote in my notes [laughs], I said “okay, I gotta pause here” because while reading this I remember thinking “okay, this motherf****r is ready for a bad time. He’s learned that he’s in deep sh*t, right?” And then I read the following sentence: “At 9:39, the Master declined another offer of assistance from VTIC.”
Taylor: [laughs]
Tanner: Yes! Yessss!
[all laugh]
Josie: Beautiful. Just double-down all the way. Yes.
Tanner: You can’t admit that you were wrong at this point, so.
[all laugh]
Josie: Right? I’m on top of the city of Newcastle, but I’ve still got this guys. It’s fine. Um, at this point, the investigators say that he’s more or less kidding himself at this point, which, yeah. It’s only after the ship’s heading started to oscillate between 240 and 270 degrees, you know, 30 whole f*****g degrees you guys, that he realized his attempt at the starboard turn would not succeed. I don’t like the word “oscillate”, so close to a coast that seems like a bad time.
Taylor: Yeah!
Josie: At 9:45, Pasha Bulker was rapidly approaching Nobbys beach in Newcastle. [laughs] Yeah, yeah, get it out.
[all laugh]
Tanner: I’m just, I’m just uh, imagining like, the VTIC radio operator getting a call from this ship now and being like “well, look who’s come crawling back!”
Taylor and Josie: [laugh]
Josie: Right? [laughs] He’d be a total jerk about it.
Tanner: We weren’t good enough for you 20 minutes ago.
Josie: We’re not even f*****g there, let me see, it was 6 minutes prior. [laughs]
Taylor: [laughs]
Tanner: Ah, yeah.
Josie: The Master would have seen a similar view at 9:45 to that which was photographed on the ship’s bridge on the 11th of June. Um, this one’s labeled Figure 17 and I’ve sent it to you folks in an email. It’s one I posted to my Twitter feed the other day that made me laugh, because it just looks so less than ideal.
Taylor: I loved that picture. It looks like a picture that shouldn’t exist.
Tanner: Yeah, it looks photoshopped. It quite literally does. Like so many pictures of this after the incident, it looks like someone photoshopped this…
Josie: …right?
Tanner: …if you know anything about these big freighters, you know that like, they don’t get that close to the shore. It just, it doesn’t happen.
Josie: No, no it doesn’t.
Taylor: Yeah, even like…because as it plays out here, it makes me think about the Norwegian naval vessel we talked about, the Helge Ingstad…
Tanner: …oh yeah.
Taylor: …just massive overconfidence in what you’re doing. And in their case, it’s like, well we’re the Navy. Like, we got this. And this, I don’t know what this guy’s excuse is, but he just sounds way overconfident for what he’s doing.
Tanner: We just escaped a lawsuit from the Norwegian government about the Michigan thing, so we need to cool it with bringing up Norwegian incidents…
Taylor: …no Norwegian slander. [laughs]
Josie: …[laughs] no mention of them, no, not at all. Yeah, I mean, I don’t know, I know that um, a friend of the show Sarah was in the Navy, so I don’t wanna impugn them too much, although I’m pretty sure they’re anti-Navy as well, but the Master of the ship, he did spend his first 2 years on sea as part of the Navy, so maybe there’s just a little bit of a cocky vibe from there, you know? I don’t know. Just spitballin’.
Tanner: To draw a connection back to that, I guess at this point with no power, just floating, this ship has essentially just become a very large neuston.
Taylor and Josie: [laugh]
Josie: Amazing! Yes. Beautiful. At 9:46, the Master decided to ask VTIC for assistance. However, at this point, it was far too late to prevent the grounding. At 9:47, VTIC acknowledged the request for assistance, but for the next 7 minutes, the Master made multiple futile attempts to prevent grounding, even while hearing the propeller blades striking rock ledges.
Taylor: [laughs]
Josie: So basically, it didn’t run aground, like, I guess that’s what we call it, but like, onto the shore proper, but it was caught on a coral reef not far from shore.
Taylor: Okay.
Josie: So now we’re grounded. I’ve taken you through a play-by-play, before I continue on to the rescue and salvage and cultural impact, I’ll go through some key findings in the report. But first I wanna ask you: do you folks have any thoughts about what I just walked you through, or points where if decisions were made differently, maybe I wouldn’t be talking to you right now about the Pasha Bulker.
Taylor: I think it just sounds like such a familiar story, in the sense of…it’s like we were saying, it’s all these small things, all these little bad decisions that happened. The communication that doesn’t happen. It’s just amazing, it’s the thread that runs through almost all of these stories of, it’s just a communication breakdown and it’s interesting how you can see that in anything, right? You’re working on a project for work in a team, and you’ve worked on good teams, you’ve worked on bad teams. The good ones communicate, the bad ones don’t. It’s amazing how that just goes through everything, um…
Josie: …yes.
Taylor: …I don’t know, I find that very fascinating.
Josie: I’m always in this like, I’m always in two minds, like I’ll always defend you know, humans’ ability to be creative and be dynamic in situations, but then you get, and sorry for present company, but you get dudes, like, [laughs] I don’t think dudes, like the mentality of dudes. Yeah, I think that’s the common thread, yeah, this overconfidence. Yeah, again, um, hierarchy is well, um…
Taylor: …mm-hmm.
Josie: Which, I guess if you’re following bridge or crew resource management, like that hierarchy is fine because it’s all laid out and there are points where you can speak up and all that. One of the findings that the ATSB report found was literally no bridge resource management was utilized by the crew at any point, nor the Master, but everyone was absolutely trained in bridge resource management, so that is a total failure on everyone’s part. So before I get on to some of the key findings in the ATSB report, I just wanted to quickly talk about one little part that I found kind of amusing. In one section of the report, the investigators speculated that a query from VTIC after the grounding occurred asking if the ship’s anchors were still in their hawse pipes made the Master realize that he had not considered deploying them. They suspected this because of the following remarks made in the ship’s log book, allegedly, retrospectively, and in the Master’s handwriting.
Tanner: Ahh yess! Yess! Yes! Ahh, I would do that in English class all the time when I forget to do my homework.
Taylor: [laughs]
Josie: Oh yeah, science reports, I’ve totally made these observations. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah man. [laughs] Um…
Tanner: …I was hoping that the VTIC message would be, like after it’s already grounded, like uh, “so uhh, hey! How uh, how ya doin’? How’s it goin’? How ya feelin’?”
Josie: [laughs] something smarmy. So, in the Master’s handwriting, allegedly: “9:00am, contacted Newcastle harbor for assistance, but never received assistance due to too much traffic.” Hmmm.
Taylor: [laughs]
Josie: Okay. Um, “9:10 to 9:50, Master tried emergency drop anchor but never prepared due to heavy weather.” No, you are Mr. Bean-ing around everywhere! Like, you just f*****g…oh hi kitty cat.” [cat in camera view]
Taylor: [laughs] Just ignore him.
Josie: Aww he’s beautiful. [laughs] So, the investigators note that these entries are not at all consistent with the audio data recorded by the ship’s voyage data recorder or, like, the actions made on the ship. There’s no audio to indicate that deploying the anchors was considered at any stage of this. So key findings, these are just dot points. First off, there are several critical decisions that, had some been made differently, could have prevented the grounding entirely. First of all, failing to ballast the ship for forecast heavy weather. Second, failing to leave anchorage at an early stage. Third, not preparing appropriately for the emergency deployment of the anchors and not deploying the anchors at all. Next, conning the ship inappropriately at critical times, including the order to alter the course by 20 degrees, putting the ship’s head through strong gale force winds without the Master controlling the ship himself. And finally, attempting a final turn starboard towards the lee shore that was less than a mile away.
Other points of note, I did already mention the lack of bridge resource management, but there’s also the fact that the investigators found no evidence that there were misunderstandings or difficulties that could be attributed to language barriers. Like, everyone was able to understand each other through English. Larger problems that contributed to the grounding of the Pasha Bulker included a fundamental misunderstanding of the role of VTIC and that they’re merely there in an advisory role and do not provide instructions. This is one of the reasons why many ships in the queue waited for weather-related guidance, which was not issued until the weather conditions were extreme. Twenty-one Masters in Newcastle anchorage even requested permission to weigh anchor and put to sea, something that they absolutely did not need to do. I will say that in this report, I don’t think they, I agree that the Master was at fault here, but I do think that there was more that could have been done by people on the ground. But that’s just a systemic issue rather than this one case necessarily. Next was the queue system which led to a greater number of ships anchoring close to the coast and the nature of the first-in-first-served queue may have made ships unwilling to leave anchorage. And finally, the unwillingness of ships to put to sea at an earlier time may be partly attributed to Masters avoiding situations where they might need to explain to the ship’s managers, like, why there’s less fuel than predicted, or why they are gonna take an extra few days or whatever.
In terms of the queue system, Pasha Bulker’s legacy did lead to the creation of a new coal ship queuing system where ships now wait their turn to load far out to sea, either way east of Newcastle or up near Papua New Guinea instead of anchoring close to the coast, which is very far away, I was quite surprised by that, but I think there’s so much like…ships are waiting there for sometimes like weeks to months for some coal. So I guess, whatever. Chill out up there for a while.
Taylor: [laughs]
Josie: A whole bunch of recommendations were made, but I frankly found them too boring to write down. But, you can, of course, read those for yourself. What I will note is that the ATSB was unable to determine what, if any, safety actions have been taken by the owners and managers of Pasha Bulker to address the relevant safety issues identified in the report. Finally, in the report was a response by Pasha Bulker’s owners. The owners do not accept that the comments and recommendations contained in the report are valid. They did not provide any evidence or argument to support this statement, which is frankly hilarious to me. They’re just like “no. No, we don’t…no. It’s just not what happened.”
Taylor: That um, reminds me of the Marine Electric right there, where the owners are like “well, she probably ran aground somewhere and then she sank.” And the Coast Guard’s like “yeah, that didn’t happen.” Like that just never happens.
Josie: [laughs] It just didn’t.
Tanner: That and the Carl D. Bradley, where you know, you’ve got the company denying that like, “no, the ship didn’t snap in half. We didn’t do that. It’s not our fault.” [laughs]
Taylor: Even those survivors literally saw it snap in half.
Josie: “We were there!”
Tanner: Exactly! Yeah.
Josie: Amazing. Deny, deny, deny. Incredible.
Tanner: “I didn’t do f*****g sh*t! I didn’t rig sh*t!”
Taylor and Josie: [laugh]
Josie: So now on to the rescue part. Thank you for bearing with me. As luck would have it, 2 days before we were recording, there was an interview on the Australian Broadcast Network with Glen Ramplin, who was a major part of the crew rescue mission. He was the dude who was on the winch getting people up to safety, um, on the helicopters. So, Glen had been a rescue crewman for about 10 years at the point of the Pasha Bulker incident. His shift started as normal. He got a phone call to say a ship was coming ashore and he is like, “oh, whatever, bullsh*t”. But they went out, they had 2 helicopters that day, they both flew to the grounded ship. He was put on the deck of the ship and spoke to the Captain and they began their rescue mission of 22 people total. In the interview, he told of how the static electricity built up so much in the helicopter that every time he touched down onto the deck, the static was discharged and he’d get zapped every time.
Taylor: [laughs]
Tanner: Ughh…
Josie: He said this could happen even in dry, dusty conditions, and so it was like, standard procedure to like, before you touch, like, when you’re touching the winch, like the cable, you use the back of your hand to sort of, suss it out. So he said this can happen at any point, but this time it was so extreme that when he went to touch the hook for the first time before winching people up from the deck, electricity arced from the hook to his hand and knocked him flat on his back. This is the only time that’s ever happened to him, and so from then on they would put the hook down onto the deck to let it sort of earth a bit before he touched it. He’d still get zapped, but it wasn’t like, literally knocking him backwards.
Taylor: [laughs]
Josie: So, after the first 4 people were winched onto one of the rescue helicopters, it took off and he had no comms at the time, so old mate was just like, okay I guess I’m just doing this job by myself. Later, it was found out that this second heli was called to a higher priority job because with these east coast lows, there are significant storms happening in Newcastle, and so there’s a higher priority job where 2 people were swept off the road during the storm, and unfortunately lost their lives. I will say that last night I had dinner with my father-in-law, uh, he was up from Newcastle, coincidently, and this is something I’ll get to soon, but everyone in Newcastle has a Pasha Bulker story.
Taylor: [laughs] I bet.
Josie: Everyone. [laughs] And he was like a, you know, in his mid-20s at the time, and he was working as an engineer, sort of off Newcastle, and someone went out to get like a choccy milk on their break and they’re like, “holy sh*t, there’s a, there’s a ship heading towards Newcastle!” and they all jumped in a car and went to like this lookout to watch it happen, and they watched it happen. They’re like, “noo, noo, noo!”
[all laugh]
Josie: But as they were sitting in their car, which was like rocking side to side because the winds were so heavy, a literally f*****g couch, a sofa, was flying down the street in front of them…
Taylor and Tanner: [laugh]
Josie: I’ve never seen anything like that in my life! Like it wasn’t, I had to clarify, was it in, like, water? Because I’ve seen that sh*t before, I’m in Brisbane, which gets lots of floods, but he’s like, no, the wind was blowing a sofa down the street. And I’m just like, okay, that’s wild, and I guess added a bit of context to how strong this weather was.
Tanner: I think what this reminds me of in terms of like the, like what you said, “hey uh, guys, like there’s a ship on the beach”. Um, it reminds me of when we talked about the Edmond, the Irish coffin ship getting blown into Kilkee Bay, somewhere that like, big ships literally can not go because of this reef that runs across the opening. Um, so you know, guy looking out his window and being like, “ummm…”
Taylor: [laughs] that shouldn’t be there.
Josie: [laughs]
Tanner: That is bananas.
Taylor: [laughs]
Josie: I can’t imagine what would be running through my head, like I think I’d do one of those like, cartoonish shaking of the head and jowls like [cartoon noise]. Like, “I don’t believe it!” Because, and like rubbing my eyes comically because what the f*ck? Especially because like, you know, Newcastle is a port city, like the CBD is right there, and so you just see this big-ass ship heading straight towards these buildings. I wouldn’t compare it to this, especially considering no lives were lost, but some people call it Newcastle’s 9/11, which, you know…
[all laugh]
Josie: I guess if it’s all that happens in your town, then alright, but…
Taylor: …everything is relative.
Josie: …[laughs] yeah. So, after everyone was off the ship, one of the crewmen was running past the media to head inside to the nearby surf club, because everyone was obviously very drenched. Someone from the media yelled out, asking “how are you feeling?” to which this crewman stopped, looked, and responded: “I’m okay; Captain f***ed.”
[all laugh]
Josie: Amazing! I was just so glad like, I read so many f*****g articles, and only 1 mentioned this, and I was like “yess, I’m so glad I found this!” Because that’s incredible, and exactly my um, outside view of it too.
Tanner: Glad that the crews’ voice is being heard here.
Taylor: Right?
Josie: Finally. [laughs] And just as a quick aside, because as always, at least one racist nugget to be found whenever we talk about Australia…
Tanner: …mm-hmm.
Josie: …the person who relayed this in the article I got this from stated that before the crewman replied to this question, they all looked and wondered how the crewman was going to answer, and that he probably didn’t even understand the question. Because, reminder, all the crewmen were from the Philippines. But, I just like, gasped. Like, this might not be common knowledge and you know, whatever, but f*****g English is spoken by more than 14 million people in the Philippines, 95 percent of people in the Philippines speak English! And yet this asshole is just like, “can he even understand what I’m saying?” Like, you motherf****r, he probably…he can speak more languages than you, I’m certain of it.
Taylor: [laughs]
Tanner: Kind of on that note, as a teacher with like international students, I’ve heard people discuss similar things in the context of students from India, and talking about “oh how is their English level?” And the students will be like, “um, native…like, it’s the language I speak at home…” So yeah, that sort of ignorance about that is very widespread unfortunately.
Josie: Oh yeah, totally. Totally. So next, the salvage mission. I did provide an overall sort of visual of it that has like, 6 labels on it. I won’t go too much into it. Basically, multiple attempts were made to salvage and refloat the ship, and this was only successful on the 3rd attempt. On June 13th, it was noted that Pasha Bulker’s outer hull had a breach and was taking in water, but the inner hull was sound. Second of July, oil was detected in the water on both sides of the ship, indicating an oil leak. At this point, it had run aground 3 weeks earlier, but it had been spun, so the hull was pointed seaward, but it was still very much stuck on the reef. People were expecting another delay when at 9:37 that night, on the 2nd of July, 24 days since she ran aground, Pasha Bulker was finally afloat. It was after another 4 weeks that the bulk carrier finally left Newcastle proper. Thousands of people flocked to the foreshore to watch it head to sea before it was towed to Japan for major repairs.
Taylor: [laughs]
Josie: Yeah, so I sent you folks a picture that show all of the different attempts and methods used to refloat the Pasha Bulker, including the positions of the 4 tug boats used in the operation, and the 3 15-ton anchors laid seaward on Nobbys beach.
Tanner: Yeah I’ve got a question about that.
Josie: Yeah?
Tanner: I’m seeing here a…Groper rock?
Taylor: [laughs]
Josie: Oh my gosh, I didn’t even see that! Jesus Christ…
Tanner: …I’m just asking questions.
Josie: …yeah, that sounds right. Just asking questions! I have no answer for you. Um, that could be a little take-home activity. [laughs] Not my problem.
Tanner: I’m gonna find out why it’s called Groper Rock, and it’s probably something boring, but it might not be. So…
Taylor: …I bet it could be something horrible.
Tanner: Yeah. We’ll see.
Josie: Yeahh, it’s like an even split of being something either horribly racist, sexist, or just some English dude, I think.
Taylor: I feel like it could be like an episode of Parks and Rec. I don’t know if you guys, how much that is a thing in Australia, but uh, it’s one of the…
Josie: …oh yeah, I’ve seen a little.”
Taylor: …running jokes in that show that like everything is named for something horrible that we did to the Native Americans.
Tanner: I’m assuming it’ll probably be like…find out it’s some British colonizer / philanthropist named like Archibald Groper-Smith or something.
Taylor and Josie: [laugh]
Josie: Yeah, but he also probably was a sex pest as well…
Tanner: …oh yeah, I mean of course that, that goes without saying.
Josie: [laughs] “That goes without saying, Josie!” So finally, um, the last section is cultural memory, which is a bit lighter. I might actually start off with the most pressing thing first. Because my background is in victimology, I’d be remiss to ignore the fact that what’s known as the “Pasha Bulker Storm” by many did take the lives of multiple people, and those who lost their loved ones during that storm believe that whenever we sorta talk about Pasha Bulker, while it is objectively funny to look at the pictures of it, there was also this background that the storm occurred where 4 people in Newcastle proper lost their lives. Three of the 4 were swept away in flood waters, while 1 had um, a tree had its roots undermined by rainwater, and so the tree fell and crushed this dude’s car as he was coming home from work. And then an extended family of 5 were also killed when a section of the old Pacific Highway collapsed during the storm, and they were swept away. So that’s very depressing, but I’m, I want to respect the wishes of their loved ones and just sort of you know, bring attention to that. But, for the more lighthearted things, that’s more or less all the boat geekiness out of the way, um, but I wanna talk about how the Pasha Bulker is talked about and remembered. I legitimately had not even heard about it until like a few weeks ago when someone posted about it on Twitter for it’s 15 year anniversary of it being run aground. My husband, who grew up around the area, he still has family there, remembered that it was a big deal at the time, and talked about for years. During the time of Pasha Bulker’s grounding, there was like a little boom of tourism and like, there was a subsequent economic boom, like, people would fly into the state to look at this ship. Cause at that people they didn’t know was it gonna become a wreck? Or was it going to be afloat? And obviously it was afloat again, but there was one part that did come off in the storm. Yeah, so part of the rudder broke off during the salvage operation and is now a beachside sculpture. I believe I sent that in the email? I don’t know, um, it’s like a red-looking thing.
Tanner: uhh, yes.
Josie: Which is the ship in general that I now realized I’m saying.
Tanner: Okay yes, now I understand what this is.
Josie: Yeah, so the 19-ton rudder snapped off on a rock reef and was later recovered from the seabed. It’s titled ‘Grounded’ and the bright red sculpture by John Petrie represents the ship’s bow and its position as it was grounded back in 2007. So you stand there, it’s kinda like, invoking that memory of its position. So, before it was afloat again, there was [laughs] the side of the Pasha Bulker was used basically as a billboard by Greenpeace, who used lasers to project anti-climate change slogans onto the hall of the Pasha Bulker such as “Coal Causes Climate Change Chaos” and “This is What Climate Change Looks Like.” I thought it was a pretty cool way to like, use this giant ship and the obvious absurdity of the situation as like a way to drive home that the storm surges that resulted in the Pasha Bulker running aground…Pasha Bulker being, you know, a coal carrier, would become more frequent and severe over time as a result of climate change. But of course, while I respect their efforts, the people who were in power made no…still have made no progress on climate change.
In the days following the grounding of the Pasha Bulker, it was listed for sale on eBay for a short amount of time…
Taylor: [laughs]
Josie: …and attracted bids of up to 16 million dollars, with seller jonno504 writing in the listing that the coal carrier is “in excellent condition with a huge capacity for cargo although it can be converted into a hotel, floating restaurant, casino, or retirement village…
Taylor: …[laughs]
Josie: …the views are amazing from just about everywhere on this little beauty although a chopper (not included in sale) is required for easy passage onto and off the boat." Of course this listing, I know it might surprise you, but jonno504 was not the legitimate owner of the Pasha Bulker, so this listing was taken down after like a day or so. Umm, there was also a play written by Alana Valentine titled Grounded, which explored the collective thrill of Pasha Bulker’s grounding that dissipated into like a weird hollowness post-salvage. The playwright noted that when she visited Newcastle 4 years after the incident, it was clear that the story of Pasha Bulker had lodged itself under the city’s skin, but everyone had a hard time explaining why. A Thai takeaway restaurant even had a giant picture of Nobbys beach with Pasha Bulker stranded. Everyone she spoke to seemed to have their own story from that time. It’s been suggested that the grounding brought the fact that Newcastle is a port city back into focus after so many sort of incorporated it into the background of their day to day lives. This aligns with what my husband said about Newcastle, like, obviously not to the extent of Pasha Bulker being on a beach, but the sight of large ships is not uncommon in Newcastle. There’s like, there’s just like a line of trees between you know, a highway and the port, like a main road and a port. So it’s kinda like, “oh yeah, right, this is the nature of our city I guess.” And finally, there’s just, I’ve sent these photos to you, but there’s like a former Pro Junior series surfer, Rhys Smith, who went to the site of Pasha Bulker’s grounding with a camera crew from Waves magazine, and he was able to surf the bulker break for like 25 minutes before security clocked on.
Taylor and Tanner: [laugh]
Josie: But yeah, total Dudes Rock moments. I couldn’t not share that with you guys.
Taylor: Just imagine if like, TikTok had been a thing for this. It would have become just like, the biggest attraction.
Tanner: Oh yeah.
Josie: Oh my Gosh, that’s something like, even my father-in-law was saying he had a sh*tty flip phone with a camera on it, but you know, terrible. So many of the photos that you get of the Pasha Bulker actually look really well done in their composition and everything like that because, the people who sort of had the cameras were maybe more like, I guess hobbyists or whatever. But yeah, so that’s the Pasha Bulker. I can’t find any memorabilia online for sale, but I do know that Pasha Bulker like, stubby, or like beer holders, or, I don’t know what you call them in America. You know, like the foamy things?
Tanner: We call them a “koozie”.
Josie: A koozie?
Tanner: Yep.
Josie: Oh yeah, no, that’s cute. Better than a stubby holder.
Taylor and Tanner: [laugh]
Josie: There’s a…I think I sent a picture of a beer in a Pasha Bulker stubby holder. Incredible areas. But yeah, that’s the Pasha Bulker. Any thoughts?
Taylor: I think it is cool, um, just this kind of, the impact that you were saying it had on Newcastle and the area, and kind of bringing it back to the front, that like it’s still an industrial town. It’s like, such a, it’s tied to that maritime tradition and everything. Like you said, a lot of it happens in the background of most people’s lives, even that live in Newcastle probably…
Josie: …totally.
Taylor: …but this kind of brings it back to the front of everyone. You can’t ignore the big vessel stuck on the beach.
Josie: Yes! Yes, you cannot. [laughs]
Taylor: I thought that was very interesting.
Josie: Ah, cool, I’m glad. Cause I was like, I find this interesting, I don’t know if anyone else will find this interesting.
Tanner: One could almost say that this bulker, you know, while it may be gone now, it will always be beached in the collective cultural psyche of Newcastle.
Josie: I see what you did there, very clever. [laughs]
Taylor: [laughs] Yeah I feel like Newcastle lost a friend once she left.
Josie: I lowkey kinda wish it did turn into a wreck, just because that would look sick…
Taylor: …right?
Josie: …um, but it is a really beautiful beach to go to. Like, it’s very popular, so for those people who like to swim there, yeah, maybe not. So I thought that was a fun one, thank you for letting me sort of geek out on this, I’m glad that there was minimal death involved in this one. But um, still just…and there still seems to be no death of the ego either when it comes to the ship’s Master, which was really incredible.
Taylor: That is incredible.
Josie: It’s my favorite part. Dudes continue to rock.
Tanner: Yeah, dudes are undefeated.
Taylor and Josie: [laugh]
Josie: Even by um, reef. Some reef.
Tanner: I do have a question that’s not related to this story necessarily, but it is related to one of our older episodes. In our episodes that we did on the HMAS Voyager, uh, I don’t know if you’ve listened to those, the person who was responsible for the first commission was uh, I believe his name was John Spicer?
Josie: Oh noo…
Tanner: Is there any connection that you know of to that?
Taylor and Tanner: [laugh]
Josie: I mean, not that I know of. Um, so there’s like, at least, there’s multiple Spicers in Australia. Mine are the criminal type of Spicers…
Taylor: [laughs]
Tanner: Okay.
Josie: …where they’re put on penal islands and stuff like that.
Taylor: We don’t wanna make too many assumptions about Australians, but we kinda thought everybody was there.
Josie: [laughs] True. “Josie, you’re from Australia, we just thought you like, yeah duh.” Sorry, it’s a bit of an aside, but I, there could be, because I know that um, my great-grandfather, and possibly even his dad just started a second life. They like stole their elder son’s identity and started a second life somewhere. One of them ended up in Wisconsin, actually.
Tanner: Wow!
Taylor: [laughs]
Josie: And died there. And so, sometimes I lay awake at night and wonder if, is it Sean Spicer, the dude who was the White House guy?...
Tanner: The Press Secretary?
Josie: I used to like, lie awake at…yeah! I used to lie awake at night and be like, What if I were related? Can I live with that?
Taylor: [laughs]
Josie: You know, like I don’t need to know. I don’t need to know.
Tanner: You know, now, you mention Sean Spicer, I’m looking at John Spicer here and I can see maybe that there’s a family connection there. So I’ve got some research to do.
Taylor: [laughs]
Josie: Oh no. [laughs] What have I done?
Tanner: Alright. Well. Um.
Josie: Yeah.
Tanner: Cool. I guess that wraps things up here.
Josie: Yeah, I’m all done.
Tanner: Just a note here, I guess I’ll just include this in the episode. We’ll be getting this one out on Patreon. I think on Patreon we’ll put the uncensored, unedited version on Patreon, uh, and maybe the edited version too. But we’ll definitely put the full, the uh…
Taylor: …the director’s cut, if you will.
Tanner: If I’m allowed to say this as an American, the “no wakkas” edition of the episode.
Taylor and Josie: [laugh]
Josie: The No Wakkas, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Tanner: Where everything is okay, everything is acceptable, uncensored by the police state of Joseph Robinette Biden.
Taylor and Josie: [laugh]
Josie: No cussing allowed, I guess.
Tanner: Well cool. Um, in that case, again, we’ll just say thank you for coming on.
Taylor: Definitely, thank you.
Tanner: It was a lot of fun having someone who, you know, we enjoy listening to your podcasts so much. You know, Australian Gothic and A Hill to Die On.
Josie: Awww.
Tanner: It was really amazing to have you on the show, so thank you very much.
Josie: Thank you, I love being on here. And thank you for the work you guys do too.
Tanner: Alright, so with that, we’ll sign off here and say thank you all for listening, and we will talk to you again in 2 weeks.
[background audio of waves on shore]
Tanner: Thanks for listening to another episode of Beyond the Breakers. We love hearing from listeners, and if you’d like to get in touch with us, there’s a couple of ways you can do that:
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