Maritime New Zealand has sought leave to challenge a High Court decision quashing the conviction of a former Cook Strait ferry officer for failing to report a near-grounding.
It is seeking an urgent resolution of the definition of the master of a ship, after the court ruled lastmonth that veteran seafarer David William Birchall did not hold that position while at the helm of a ferry caught by an unusually strong tide at the entrance to Tory Channel in the Marlborough Sounds in June 2005.
Mr Birchall was given command of the Bluebridge ferry Santa Regina while its master went off duty, and had to take evasive action to save the vessel with its 57 passengers and 32 crew from foundering on rocks.
Although a district court judge acquitted him last year of two charges of operating the ship in a manner causing unnecessary danger or risk to property, he was found guilty of failing to notify Maritime NZ of the incident as soon as practicable.
He was convicted and fined $750 with costs of $130, in a decision reversed last month by the High Court, which ruled he was not the ship's master and therefore not responsible for making a report.
Mr Birchall says the case has forced him to find work overseas.
Responding to Maritime NZ's bid to test the High Court judgment on the question of who, in law, was the master of the Santa Regina at the time of the incident, Mr Birchall told the Herald yesterday the decision could have serious staffing cost repercussions for Strait Shipping, operator of the Santa Regina, as Maritime rules required either a qualified pilot or a master of a vessel to be at the helm at all times while it sailed in pilotage waters such as Tory Channel.
