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Just days before Christmas in 1987, a passenger ferry named the Doña Paz set sail from Leyte Island in the Philippines enroute to Manila, the capital. The Japanese-built ship could safely transport 1,500 passengers, but with so many trying to reach loved ones in time for Christmas, the ship was crammed with more than 4,300 travelers, almost three times its capacity.
The voyage was slated to take less than 24 hours, and right on time, the Doña Paz entered the Tablas Strait. The weather was clear that evening, but the waters were choppy. Also operating in the busy channel that night was an oil tanker, the Vector. It was carrying more than 1,100 tons of fuel, oil, and other petroleum products. What she wasn’t carrying on board was a license to operate or a functioning radio. On top of that, the crew of the unseaworthy ship were all asleep leaving just one junior sailor at the helm.
Unfortunately, the passengers on the ferry weren’t in much better shape. Most of the crew were drinking alcohol while watching TV or playing card games in their quarters. During the night, the strong currents of the strait put the two massive vessels on a collision course with one another and about an hour-and-a-half before midnight, they slammed into one another causing a huge explosion.
Oil and fuel immediately poured overboard setting the water around the ships on fire. The flammable cargo of the Vector also splashed onto the decks of the Doña Paz setting the passenger ship ablaze. The ensuing chaos was further compounded by the fact that the ferry’s life preservers were locked away, unavailable to the terrified passengers.
By the time the sun had risen the following morning, it was already clear that the collision of the Doña Paz and the Vector would be the deadliest civilian maritime disaster in history. Of the more than 4,400 passengers and crew on both ships, just 26 people were rescued from the oil-slicked waters.
The irony of the accident, now referred to as “Asia’s Titanic,” is how easily it could have been avoided. If the crew on this ship were awake, or the crew on that ship were sober, the tragedy could have been avoided. If the oil tanker wouldn’t have been sailing that night – or at least had a functioning radio – the accident could have been avoided. If the helmsman over here turned this way or the helmsman over there turned that way, the shipwreck could have been avoided completely.
That’s just one shipwreck that could have been avoided. The apostle Paul talks about another avoidable shipwreck in The Book of 1 Timothy.
This charge I entrust to you, Timothy, my child, in accordance with the prophecies previously made about you, that by them you may wage the good warfare, holding faith and a good conscience. By rejecting this, some have made shipwreck of their faith, among whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme.
