MANILA, Philippines—The captain of the doomed SuperFerry 9 said strong winds may have caused the sinking of the ship off the Zamboanga Peninsula on Sept. 6, a claim rejected by the Philippine Coast Guard at the start of the investigation into the sea mishap Monday.

In his testimony before the Board of Marine Inquiry (BMI), Capt. Joel Yap said the vessel started to roll at around 11 p.m. on Sept. 5, due to strong winds.

“The wind from the portside was getting stronger,” said the skipper of the 7,000-ton vessel owned by Aboitiz Transport System Corp. He said the wind measured 10 knots, about 18.5 kilometers per hour.

He ordered his crew to transfer some water in the heeling tanks to stabilize the ship, but it continued to pitch.

By 2 a.m. of Sept. 6, the vessel listed by two degrees. Aside from transferring the waters in the heeling tanks to balance the vessel, Yap said he also tried to slow down the ship but this did not stop it from tilting even further.

Half an hour later, the SuperFerry 9 suddenly leaned 35 degrees to its right side and lost power, he said.

Yap said he directed the crew to assist passengers into their life vests. By 3:10 a.m., Yap said he ordered everyone to abandon ship.

No explosion

The SuperFerry 9, which was carrying about 1,000 people, sank off the coast of Zamboanga del Norte. Ten people died from the sea tragedy, while the rest of the passengers and crew were rescued by nearby ships.

Asked by the panel if he had any idea why the SuperFerry 9 capsized, Yap said: “I don’t know.” Yap said there was no explosion prior to the listing of the ship and its sinking.

Yap’s assistant, chief mate Francis Garcia, said the weather was unusual when the vessel left General Santos City on Sept. 5.

Although the sea was “fair,” the wind “was gaining force,” he said, noting that there was no storm signal raised in the area.

But some BMI officials did not buy the wind theory.

BMI member Thomas Baino expressed doubts that the winds capsized the ship. According to Baino, 10 knots is not enough to bring a ship as large as SuperFerry 9 down. “Parang kurot lang yan (It’s like a pinch),” he said.

Baino said the wind should be at least 35 knots to be able to tilt a vessel the size of the Superferry 9.

Cargo secured

BMI officials sought explanations from SuperFerry officials on how the cargo was placed inside the bottom decks as there were reports from survivors saying they heard a loud thud from the bottom decks.

Coast Guard officials previously said that the cargos in the bottom decks may have moved, putting the ship off balance.

Garcia said the container vans in the belly of the ship were “secured” when he inspected them past 2 a.m.

The captain said there were 186 container vans inside the SuperFerry 9, which was on its way to Iloilo City.

“I saw the lashings. They were still intact, the chains were in place,” he said.

Like Yap, Garcia said he did not hear any explosions or loud sounds before the incident.

Garcia said he was supposed to conduct another heeling process to stabilize the ship, but at the time, the ship was tilting in such a way that made it hard for them to walk straight.

Vessel recently stranded

Garcia, who oversaw the cargo loading, said he did not compute the load.

He noted that he based the distribution of the cargo vans based on the “assumed computation” in the manifest.

Garcia said he could not explain why the SuperFerry 9 encountered stability problems. When a ship lists, Garcia said the problem is likely to be “internal.”

“Until now I don’t have any idea why the ship listed,” he said.

BMI officials said the Sept. 6 tragedy was not the first time that the vessel encountered problems. On May 4, the SuperFerry 9 was stranded near Camiguin Island with 900 passengers.

“At the time, there was a minor repair on the engine,” Garcia said.

The BMI is scheduled to continue the hearing on Wednesday.