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SCMP Reporter

DOUBTS have emerged over the qualifications of the captain of a Hong Kong-registered dredger, who drowned when his vessel sank after hitting rocks off Macau last week.

  Senior Marine Department sources said Captain Juliaan Haems had Belgian certificates which did not qualify him to master a Hong Kong-flagged vessel.

  Captain Haems' body was pulled from the sunken wreck off Coloane Island on Friday by Royal Navy divers with that of another seaman. Four other crew remain missing presumed drowned.

  Sources said the Belgian owners of the 100-metre dredger, Maas, re-registered their vessel in Hong Kong in April shortly before putting it to work on the new Macau Airport project.

  Special dispensation was being sought for Captain Haems' qualifications but had not yet been finalised by the department, which had questioned his experience.

  It is not yet clear if the captain needed ocean-going qualifications to work a Hong Kong-registered vessel in the confines of the Pearl River delta.

  A spokesman for the vessel's charterers, Far East Dredging Company, could not be contacted.

  Deputy Director of Marine Ian Dale said he could not comment on the captain's qualifications, but confirmed they would feature strongly in the Department's preliminary investigation launched immediately after the accident.

  ''A large part of our investigation is to determine what caused the accident, and as part of that we have to look at the background of the vessel's crew,'' he said.

  News that an unqualified master might have been operating a Hong Kong ship strikes a blow to the department's bid to promote its registry, nearly three years old, internationally.

  The day after the accident, Mr Dale told an audience at a ceremony with P&0 shipping executives that growth in the Hong Kong registry ''underlines the growing acceptance by shipowners that HK's registry reflects both quality and flexibility''.

  He added: ''I am determined to make the HK flag a quality register. There are far too many sub-standard ships at sea. They are a danger to their crew, and the environment. Our regulations are geared towards safety, practicality, and flexibility.''   The Marine Department expects the registry's tonnage to top more than eight million by the end of this year, spread over more than 600 vessels.



Captain's qualifications in doubt