Owners of the vessel Sage Saitaurus which has been dubbed the “death ship” are reported to have offered a payoff to the widow of the ship’s deceased engineer.
According to reports from APN Australian Regional Media, Mrs Collado has been offered AUD$47,620 in compensation for her husband’s death in return for waiving any right to legal action.
Mrs Collado is said to have refused the compensation and has taken on legal representation.
Her late husband Hector Collado had worked as chief engineer aboard the Panama-flagged coal carrier.
He is believed to have fallen to his death from an 11-metre deck to a deck below while the ship headed for Newcastle. However, the suspicious circumstances surrounding the engineer’s death are further underlined by the findings of a forensic investigation showing that Collado had sustained a head injury that was unrelated to the fall.
Collado’s death is one of the three mysterious death cases that occurred on board the ship in 2012, two of which have been subjected to an inquest by the New South Wales Coroner Court.
The vessel’s chief cook, Cesar Llanto, went missing.
The incident was followed by the death of Collado, and then the third incident happened in October while the ship was unloading in Japan – a worker of the ship’s managing company, Hachiuma Steamship, was killed after being crushed in a conveyor belt.
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