Re: The sinking of the Leviathan Whale watching boat
To quote the New York Yankee legendary catcher Yogi Berra, "This is deja vu all over again."
The report of the whale watchers in the Leviathan II disaster at sea, brought to mind the likeness of the Queen of the North back in March, 2006. In both cases, it was the local aboriginal fishing village response, that minimized loss of life and suffering.
Sunday afternoon, it was reported that the Ahousaht First Nations village had every boat in their village in the water looking to help any and all the people they could find and get them safely ashore. There weren't the numbers last Sunday that there were in the Queen of the North, but in both cases, they responded so quickly, countless lives were saved that would have surely perished.
As I recall, with the Queen of the North ferry disaster, the Hartley Bay aboriginal fishing boats were on the scene an hour and a half before the coast guard rescue effort. They circled the crippled ferry with night lights and a place to go.
With all the problems we have in
society today, crime, political differences, discrimination and petty
dislikes, it seems situations like this snaps total strangers to attention and action to work as one with the same common goal... We got to help these people.
Thank you Ahousaht, and Hartly Bay for being there.
Erle Martz
Prince George
