Produced by Mario Christodoulou, Alison McClymont and Ali Russell

Monday 1st June 2015

Ship of Death: A whodunit on the high seas.

On board a hulking vessel, off the Australian coast, tensions are running high. Out here at sea, normal rules don't apply. There's gun dealing, mistreatment and a plan being hatched to jump ship.

"There was a very real and present threat to those seafarers." Union Official

What happens next will play out with dreadful consequences.

"We've got three dead men." Maritime Investigator

Three suspicious deaths on board one vessel, in six weeks.

"I thought Jesus, you've got somebody on board there that's a killer." Union Official

Four Corners pieces together the fateful voyage, charting the growing fear and suspicion amongst the crew as one, then another, then another, die in mysterious circumstances.

And as we delve further into the case we discover the dreadful conditions of many who live their lives at sea.

These are the sailors we rely on to carry out the trade that underpins our national wealth.

"If you employ a foreigner to cheaply do what it is that you would like them to do because you don't want to pay Australian prices, there is a price to pay and it's somebody else paying." Maritime Investigator

SHIP OF DEATH, reported by Linton Besser and presented by Kerry O'Brien, goes to air on Monday 1st of June at 8.30pm. It is replayed on Tuesday 2nd of June at 10.00am and Wednesday 3rd of June at midnight. It can also be seen on ABC News 24 on Saturday at 8.00pm, ABC iview and at abc.net.au/4corners.

Transcript

"Ship of Death" Broadcast 1 June 2015

KERRY O'BRIEN, PRESENTER: Welcome to Four Corners for an intriguing whodunit on the high seas: three suspicious deaths on the one ship in just six weeks.

Has a killer gone free?

GAVIN KELSO, MARITIME COUNSELLOR: The vessel looked very forlorn. It looked really eerie. The crew actually feared that they were going to die.

GARRY KEANE, MARITIME UNION OF AUSTRALIA: It was somebody onboard that vessel actually killing people. We have had circumstances where we knew there'd been a murder onboard a vessel and you couldn't prove it. But this was three ports, three murders: just amazing stuff.

If you employ a foreigner to cheaply do what it is that you would like them to do 'cause you don't want to pay Australian prices, there is a price to pay. And it's somebody else who's paying it.

KERRY O'BRIEN: It sounds like the stuff of a Hollywood thriller.

The ship is a giant coal carrier that shuttles between Australia and Japan. First, the chief cook disappears. Then the chief engineer, a key witness, falls to a violent death. Then a shipping company official, sent to investigate, also dies violently.

This is not the first time this ship has come to the attention of Australian authorities, but a police investigation draws a blank. Only now, three years later, are the deaths finally being examined by a coronial inquiry in Australia.

It's a worrying insight to how lawless life can be on the high seas. In piecing this story together, Four Corners has gained access to the brief of evidence to reconstruct police interviews with crew members. The picture that emerges is chilling.

The reporter is Linton Besser.

LINTON BESSER, REPORTER: A strong wind swept across the bow of the MV Sage Sagittarius, 830 kilometres north-east of Cairns.

It was August 30, 2012 at 8 o'clock in the morning. The giant coal carrier was alone in the vast Coral Sea - and a man had gone overboard.

There were 24 others aboard this ship and one of them was potentially a killer.

DEAN SUMMERS, INTERNATIONAL TRANSPORT WORKERS' FEDERATION: It's not easy to fall: for a seafarer, for a man to fall over the side of a ship. There was something much more on that day. Ah, there was a threat and there was a very, very real and present threat to those seafarers.

GARRY KEANE: I thought, "Jesus. That's, that's just, that's really... You've got somebody onboard there that's, that's a killer." That was exactly sort of what had to go through your head.

LINTON BESSER: This hulking vessel, flagged in Panama and crewed by Filipinos, has been shipping Australia's coal to Japan for more than a decade. Now, it has become a floating crime scene.

NSW CORONER'S INVESTIGATOR: We're currently in the, ah, the galley of the Sage Sagittarius. Um, facing forehead on the, ah, the left-hand side, the port side is the, um, crew's mess room. On the starboard side, the right-hand side is the, um, officers' mess room.

LINTON BESSER: Until now, what occurred onboard the ship has remained a mystery, with no-one to pull together all the pieces left in the ship's wake.

DEAN SUMMERS: As soon as it leaves Australian waters it's somebody else's problem. And seafarers have gone missing under the most dramatic circumstances, with what you and I would consider overwhelming evidence of skulduggery, ah, not investigated. There is no authority. Nobody cares under the "flag of convenience" system. Um, nobody has the responsibility to investigate.

CLERK OF COURT: Please all stand. The Lead Coroner's Court is sitting.

LINTON BESSER: Three years later, the crimes on board this ship have fallen to a coroner to solve.

PHILIP STICKLAND, COUNSEL ASSISTING THE CORONER: Your Honour, this inquest will explore the circumstances surrounding the deaths of three men that occurred in connection with the merchant vessel the Sage Sagittarius in the second half of 2012.

LINTON BESSER: When the Sage Sagittarius departed Japan it should have been a routine voyage.

At the helm was Venancio Salas, a navy-trained captain who had served on the ship for more than 10 years. He was both respected and feared.

GAVIN KELSO: The captain, or the master: he-he has the ultimate authority onboard a vessel. And that's something that's pretty, um, common in the maritime industry is: if you're not getting on with the captain, you're not getting on with the master, um, y-your life at sea can be very difficult.

DEAN SUMMERS: The captain at sea on a "flag of convenience" vessel, where seafarers are being treated badly, is God.

LINTON BESSER: Almost as soon as the ship headed out to sea, tensions onboard began to build. At the centre of it all was the 42-year-old chief cook, Cesar Llanto: a seafarer with 23 years' experience who had come onboard only three days earlier.

VENANCIO SALAS, CAPTAIN (re-enactment of AFP interview, Sep. 7, 2012): He got a small kid and he got a nice house. I saw in the photo. The picture is just beside the bed. He worked hard for that house. And man, he is in the middle of something.

LINTON BESSER: The chief cook, Cesar Llanto, had a new assistant. The 26-year-old messman Jessie Martinez was the most lowly sailor onboard.

It was his first contract as a seafarer and he later wrote about his rough introduction to life at sea.

JESSIE MARTINEZ, MESSMAN (re-enactment of diary entry): Things have been so difficult for me from the moment I started. I really had a hard time to figure out the best way to do my responsibilities. Things didn't work out the way I wanted them to be.

(Video footage of Sage Sagittarius crew off-duty. Music: 'Down Under' by Men At Work)

LINTON BESSER: The men of the Sage Sagittarius were thousands of kilometres away from home - and some were running amok.

This video, shot a few weeks earlier, shows the messman, Jessie Martinez, being bullied because he was gay.

CREW MEMBER (translation): Long live the newlyweds!

LINTON BESSER: Martinez was forced into a fake wedding with a deck boy.

And the captain, Venancio Salas joined in.

(Footage shows Captain Salas signing fake "wedding permit")

CREW MEMBER (translation): We have the video to prove they are married. (Laughs)

(Crew cheers and laughs. Footage ends)

ALEX MACASO, THIRD ENGINEER (re-enactment of NSW Police interview, Sep. 15, 2012): The messman: he's always crying because he doesn't do his job. He doesn't do his job the right way because he was a gay. He's always crying because the captain scolds him sometimes.

GAVIN KELSO: The Filipino culture is, um, very conservative, ah, mostly Catholic. And, um, for a-a seaman that's actually gay to come out and, um, be accepted onboard a vessel is- would be very tough. And under most circumstances, um, I think he would have a very hard time.

(Video footage of Sage Sagittarius crew off-duty. Jessie Martinez and another crew member dance to cheers and whistles. Music: 'Into the Groove' by Madonna)

LINTON BESSER: The harassment of Martinez by his crew mates had been almost constant since he stepped aboard. He was made to dance for their amusement.

Martinez later told police this was humiliating. But the captain said his troubles were his own fault.

VENANCIO SALAS (re-enactment of AFP interview, Sep. 7, 2012): I've been noticing the messman acting so weird. Like, he tried to chat back when I try to tell him something.

He always had reasons. There has been so many, many lapses and errors and everything. And I've been trying to correct him.

LINTON BESSER: As the voyage continued, the young messman Jesse Martinez became increasingly miserable. The captain demanded that he write grovelling apologies for his behaviour.

JESSIE MARTINEZ (re-enactment of writing letter): I would like to say sorry for everything that made you unhappy and disappointed with my performance onboard.

Sir, with sincere heart I want you to know that I didn't mean to do those things. I never intend to create or inflict problems or even annoying you with my scrambled understanding. I want to stay here long and aim to be captain like you.

MICHAEL SQUIRES, MARITIME INVESTIGATOR: Yeah, the captain was, ah, unfortunately was part of - rather than protecting this, ah, young guy from, ah, that behaviour - was actually part of the teasing of the messman.

PHILIP STICKLAND: At the very time of the disappearance and death, there was intense conflict and mutual mistrust among the crew on the vessel.

MICHAEL SQUIRES: We can see that the, the fall was pretty extreme...

LINTON BESSER: At the time the Sage Sagittarius was making its way towards Australia, Squires was a senior official with the Australian Transport Safety Bureau.

MICHAEL SQUIRES: Certainly there's an issue of potential conflict among the crew when the captain's selling you a gun or a gun licence. We can see...

LINTON BESSER: Four Corners engaged Squires, who has a decade of experience investigating maritime accidents, to help piece together the events on board.

MICHAEL SQUIRES: A number of witnesses reported that the captain had a, a business of, ah, selling guns and gun licences as a sideline business.

The need to stay in the captain's favour's, um, not, ah, not one that would be dismissed lightly by the crew. So I, um, ah, I would suggest that they felt obliged - um, or if not obliged, at least they would think it was a good idea to buy one.

PHILIP STICKLAND: It is alleged that Captain Salas had connections in the navy. When the crew members returned to Manila, the crew who had paid Salas could obtain their firearms from Salas' contacts: that's the allegation.

LINTON BESSER: The Sage Sagittarius was already on the radar of Australia's Border Police. Twenty-one times in five years, the ship had been boarded by Customs officials. They wouldn't tell us why.

(to Michael Squires) So it indicates there's some intelligence on the ship?

MICHAEL SQUIRES: Yes, it does. The, er, this ship was of elevated interest. We don't know why.

The intelligence could be everything from the gun issue, perhaps in a, in a, er, previous visit the Customs officer had seen the, um, ah, pamphlets or that, that he was distributing about guns. It may be that some of the crew members have some, ah, previous history of, er, attempting to bring things in or take things out.

Um, but certainly the ship had been flagged by the authorities for a more than routine, ah, observation.

LINTON BESSER: As they neared Australia's coastline, messman Martinez was thinking of lodging a formal complaint about the behaviour of the captain and he was being urged on by another unhappy crew member: the oiler, Raul Vercede.

JESSIE MARTINEZ (re-enactment of conversation with Raul Vercede): Harassment through humiliation over time.

LINTON BESSER: Vercede noted down Martinez's concerns: overtime not paid; harassment through humiliation; threatening contract termination; gun smuggler.

Vercede also had his own agenda: he wanted Martinez' complaint to delay the vessel at Newcastle so he could jump ship.

RAUL VERCEDE, OILER (re-enactment of AFP statement, Sep. 7, 2012): Martinez told me that he had been punched and slapped by the captain and that it had happened more than once. I wanted to help him, so I told him I could make a complaint for him to the Australian Maritime Safety Authority, as I have a friend there.

LINTON BESSER (to Michael Squires): Why was the oiler urging on the messman to make a complaint?

MICHAEL SQUIRES: Um, good question and it's not exactly clear to me.

But, ah, the two oilers had not bought a, er, gun licence from the captain. Maybe there was some, er, um, feelings that are associated with, er, or some treatment that happened by not buying. I don't know. Um, it seems that he wanted something, um, and, er, he was prepared to use the messman to get that.

LINTON BESSER: The chief cook, Cesar Llanto, was angry when he discovered the plot.

Police investigators would speculate that Llanto had: "intervened and possibly interrupted a conspiracy between other crew members to obtain early release from their employment on full pay."

Tensions onboard came to a head as the ship neared Australian waters. The messman and the oiler were ready to send their complaint about the captain to the authorities. The cook was trying to stop them and the captain, who had discovered it, was furious.

It was a dangerous and volatile situation and it was about to get much worse.

The cook, Cesar Llanto, had disappeared. The alarm went out: man overboard.

VENANCIO SALAS (re-enactment): All hands, proceed to the bridge. The chief cook is missing. All hands: the chief cook is missing.

LINTON BESSER: A mayday call was sent out to Australian rescue authorities.

MICHAEL SQUIRES: The issues is that you can't search forever. There has to be some, er, regard for the survivability of somebody in the water and, ah, the temperature of the water is something that, er, is part of that calculation. You can, ah, only survive for a certain period of time if you're immersed in water.

LINTON BESSER: Onboard, everyone thought it was suspicious.

SOLOMON LAYSON, CHIEF OFFICER (re-enactment of AFP statement, Sep. 14, 2012): I don't believe that the disappearance of the chief cook is an accident. I don't believe that the chief cook committed suicide. I believe someone is involved in the disappearance of the chief cook. I believe someone push the chief cook off the ship. He is a small man.

DEAN SUMMERS: It was in my office and I'd been doing a normal day's work when a text came through, telling me that there had been a man overboard on a ship bound for Newcastle, Australia.

LINTON BESSER: The Australian Maritime Safety Authority told union boss Dean Summers that some of the crew were so scared, they had barricaded themselves inside a safe room.

DEAN SUMMERS: The crew had, er, in italics, "fear for their life" and that they had formed a citadel situation. Now, a citadel situation onboard a ship is, ah, where crew are trained to put themselves in the safest possible area: ah, surround themselves with each other, ah, similar to issues on a piracy attack.

LINTON BESSER: The vessel's Japanese owner dispatched two senior managers and two security guards to the ship. One of the managers was 37-year-old superintendent Kosaku Monji.

SHUZO MONJI, KOSAKU MONJI'S FATHER (translation): I had heard about the Sage Sagittarius from my son. He was working on three ships at the time and said that the Sage Sagittarius required the most work.

KOSAKU MONJI, SUPERINTENDENT (re-enactment of AFP interview, Sep. 11, 2012): The purpose of my boarding was to look after the safety and mental health of the crew. I boarded the vessel with my boss and two security guards.

LINTON BESSER: Monji's role was also to collect statements from the ship's crew and iron out discrepancies between them.

With security personnel on the ship, fear gripped the vessel. Everyone now knew there was potentially a murderer on board.

ALEX MACASO (re-enactment of NSW Police interview, Sep. 15, 2012): I can see each face of the crew. I can see that they are all very worried. We are all worried. Each of everyone is thinking that there is only two options: either foul play or whatever.

SOLOMON LAYSON (re-enactment of AFP statement, Sep. 14, 2012): If someone is missing and nobody witness the accident, then everybody is a suspect.

JESSIE MARTINEZ (re-enactment of police statement, Sep. 1, 2012): Everyday situation here onboard is intense. Eyes and moves seems waiting a perfect chance to do a serious and fatal plan. I cannot trust anyone anymore. I am scared. Any time our life here is in danger. I really don't know who is responsible; why chief cook is missing. My simple plan for my family might end here any moment.

LINTON BESSER: As the ship steamed into Port Kembla, news of the death broke.

MARK COLVIN, PRESENTER (PM, ABC Radio, Sep. 7, 2012): One of the world's largest coal carrying ships has been diverted to Port Kembla, south of Sydney, as the Australian Federal Police investigate a deepening maritime mystery.

LINTON BESSER: Local maritime union official Garry Keane got a call from his colleague, Dean Summers.

GARRY KEANE (re-enactment): So where, where did he go over? So what, and they, and they flew - what? Two security guards? That sounds very suspicious, doesn't it?

What nationality's the skipper?

DEAN SUMMERS (re-enactment): It's a full Filipino crew, so...

GARRY KEANE (re-enactment): Full Filipino....

LINTON BESSER: Keane and Summers jumped in the car and headed down to the port.

GARRY KEANE (re-enactment): Poor bastards'd be terrified.

DEAN SUMMERS (re-enactment): Oh, absolutely. So there's plenty of stuff going on...

GARRY KEANE: We got a bit of a shock when we got down there: that, ah, the level of police, um, involvement down there and the fact that the, the vessel was actually pretty much isolated, ah, without being able to get on or off. They had a private security mob down there that we hadn't seen down here before that were, um... less than friendly, let's just say.

LINTON BESSER: The company man Kosaku Monji was liaising with police who were investigating the cook's death.

DEAN SUMMERS: When we got there we found a lot of police officers in overalls. And, ah, I was asked by the Federal Police officer at the bottom of the gangway not to come onboard the ship while there's an investigation. This is important. I understand that. And so we agreed. I had a chance to speak to Mr Monji on the wharf - and he was at that time with his bodyguards still, even though he wasn't on the ship - um, who wasn't very friendly.

LINTON BESSER: It wasn't until early the next morning that union official Garry Keane was able to get aboard the Sage Sagittarius.

GARRY KEANE: At that stage the, the, the crew were standing, oh, you know, like looking over the rails. Um, you just got a bad vibe from the thing first-off. It's a hard life at any stage and when Dean told me that somebody had gone overboard - you know, like, that does happen but then when he started saying there was some suspicious circumstances around it, you think, ah, well, it might be a bit worse than, than normal. When I got onboard, it was far worse than normal.

LINTON BESSER: The crew was allowed to meet with the union, but not on their own.

GARRY KEANE: A couple of them came and talked and then I talked to them in a group. Um, and they were okay with that. But the company made sure they always had somebody in the background.

They weren't close enough to hear what we were talking about, but they were sitting there, just: it was an intimidation thing by presence. And, um, it was working. These guys were very, very reluctant to say anything.

LINTON BESSER: Five members of the crew, including the messman, Jessie Martinez and the oiler, Raul Vercede, were transferred off the ship. They were flown back to Manila and debriefed by the company the very night their plane landed.

But on the way off the ship, one of them had managed to find a few moments alone with Garry Keane.

GARRY KEANE: That's when the young lad just started sort of coming around, talking. He said, "We're just, we're good. We're going home. We're happy to go home." I said, "Mate, it's fine. You're going home. It's all, that's all good." He said, "We know what happened onboard." And he said, "The man's still onboard." And I said, "Whoa, what are you talking about?" And that was it. He just shut up and he went, "No, nothing." He said, "We're going home."

LINTON BESSER: It had been 10 days since the disappearance of the cook. The Australian Federal Police had turned up almost no useful evidence: no fingerprints, no DNA and no witnesses able to identify a suspect.

The detectives had interviewed only half the crew when they let the ship sail to Newcastle. It would be a fateful decision.

MICHAEL SQUIRES: The decision was, ah, critical in a number of ways. With the benefit of hindsight we can see that.

DEAN SUMMERS: If an investigation involves so many police, so many Customs, and there was so much uncertainty about the situation, it should have stayed alongside until the complete and exhaustive investigation had been finalised.

LINTON BESSER: Certainly things had not improved on board. Ever since the cook disappeared, the ship's chief engineer, Hector Collado, had been acting strangely.

The 55-year-old was the second-in-charge and a crucial witness.

ALEX MACASO (re-enactment of NSW Police interview, Sep. 15, 2012): I think the chief engineer is very affected by the situation that our chief cook is missing.

SOLOMON LAYSON (re-enactment of AFP statement, Sep. 14, 2012): It really affected him, what happened. Also, I think the pressure from the company; also the police interviews. During that time we only had a little bit sleep.

LINTON BESSER: Collado was due to disembark the vessel when it got to Newcastle and fly home to see his family.

But, as the Sage Sagittarius steamed north, Collado called his wife in a panic. He told her not to bring his grandchildren to the airport in Manila to pick him up and not to use their own car.

He was sure he was being watched.

VENANCIO SALAS (re-enactment of NSW Police interview, Sep. 14, 2012): I saw him in his cabin. And yeah, he's kind of really worried. And I said, "How are you? Are you all right?" And yeah, he said he think there's some threat on his life, his family. He's sad.

LINTON BESSER: There were rumours on board that Hector Collado wanted to change his statement to police, potentially implicating a fellow crew member.

Now, with the Federal Police waiting ashore, this was his chance to tell the truth about what he had really seen.

As the ship entered Newcastle, another tragedy was unfolding.

ALEX MACASO (re-enactment of NSW Police interview, Sep. 15, 2012): We heard some impact, some very loud. I see a man lying there. It's the chief engineer.

SOLOMON LAYSON (re-enactment of AFP statement, Sep. 14, 2012): When I go down there, I see they are making CPR to my friend. But when I look at him: lifeless.

DEAN SUMMERS: I was notified by the tug crews in Newcastle that somebody had been killed onboard the ship. And that was their words: killed. It wasn't an accident resulting in a death.

I said, "Yes, we understand that it's been investigated." And they said, "No, the ship is coming through the heads into Newcastle and a second death had happened onboard that vessel."

LINTON BESSER: The body of chief engineer Hector Collado had been found inside the engine room.

MICHAEL SQUIRES: The chief engineer had significant injuries: um, fractures, um, multiple fractures to his legs; um, head injuries, um, bruising all over. Ah, so an enormous volume of injuries, as w- as well as serious ones.

LINTON BESSER: Collado had plummeted three storeys from this railing to the deck 11 metres below.

The company initially told his widow he had died of a heart attack. This wasn't true. In fact, police had found potentially incriminating evidence, including a deep cut to the top of his head suffered before he fell.

PHILIP STICKLAND: The unexplained injury to his scalp and the repeated concerns he expressed about his own safety, both to his family and two members of the crew, also indicate that it is highly likely he met foul play.

(Michael shows Linton documents)

MICHAEL SQUIRES: We've got some photos here, um, of the deck and blood leading across the deck. It appears that, ah, we have the bleeding (clears throat) has happened before he's got to the rail. So he's gone across the deck and over the railing with the bleeding already happening.

We can see that there's...

GARRY KEANE: You quite often get circumstances on vessels where there is violence or people do go missing and that. But, but two in a short period of time of time like that, particularly when they'd put security onboard, they had a manager travelling onboard with them, um, and a short distance from here to Newcastle after having had the police onboard here: that was, that was astounding. I was, I was, absolutely amazed.

LINTON BESSER: After the second death onboard in just two weeks, the crew were in shock. Their chief engineer, Hector Collado, had been a friend and mentor.

ALEX MACASO (re-enactment of NSW Police interview, Sep. 15, 2012): Chief engineer is a very good man. He is a very good leader to us, too. He was supposed to go home that day but unfortunately that happened.

SOLOMON LAYSON (re-enactment of AFP statement, Sep. 14, 2012): I'm just, really, really sad 'cause he will just in a few hours disembark the ship, then his family is waiting for him. That is why I'm very sad also.

LINTON BESSER: Gavin Kelso from Hunterlink Services, which provides free counselling for seafarers, went onboard to check on the crew's welfare.

GAVIN KELSO: See this ship on the right...

We pull up to the boom gate and, um, and it's a different feel from, you know, what you're usually used to experiencing. The vessel looked very forlorn. It looked really eerie. Um, you know, the boat itself looked like it was under investigation. I mean, from, from our viewpoint it looked quite menacing.

LINTON BESSER: In a group meeting and then in private sessions on board, the crew spoke of their terror. Several were clutching prayer cards depicting Catholic saints. They wanted to get off the ship.

GAVIN KELSO: So he's staring at this card and, and then just broke down in tears. And, um, you know, again: just highlighting the distress that these guys are under. And, um, you know, he-he spoke quite openly about how fearful he was. He wanted to get home to his, his wife and, um, was unable to.

LINTON BESSER: What did they fear?

GAVIN KELSO: The crew actually feared that, um, they were going to die; that, um, you know, something was going to happen to them on-onboard the vessel and, um, they were going to not finish their shift, you know? Uh, and they were the words that were, that were actually put forward to us.

LINTON BESSER: The Sage Sagittarius is what the maritime industry has long called a "flag of convenience" vessel.

Although it belongs to a Japanese company, it carries the flag of Panama, allowing the company to reduce its tax burden and avoid exposure to more stringent workplace regulations.

DEAN SUMMERS: I've seen a situation where a seafarer who was undergoing a terrible psychological episode was tied to his chair in his cabin so he couldn't get off the ship, because the crew was that small: if one seafarer had left, then the Australian Maritime Safety Authority would have had to detain the ship.

I've seen masters refusing to take on fresh water, which is given free from the Australian Government to a ship, as a way to punish his crew.

GARRY KEANE: Some of the things that we see when these vessels come in and that sometimes no actions are taken against them. Um, and-and this is not new. This has been going on for many years. There-there's... We've known and been told by crews of people being dragged out of their bunks and thrown overboard.

DEAN SUMMERS: The "flag of convenience" system provides for abuse of the system and it provides for, ah, opportunities for seafarers to be intimidated, as we've certainly seen on the Sage Sagittarius.

LINTON BESSER: Still in Newcastle, the delays were costing the ship's owners a small fortune. Amidst the police investigation, the captain and the crew of the Sage Sagittarius were flown home and replaced.

Giant shipping company NYK wanted the shipment of coal back on its way.

MICHAEL SQUIRES: Anything out of the ordinary, ah, essentially is a threat to the viability of that voyage, if not the company itself. So there's a constant pressure on the master to, ah, make the contract a success; to make the voyage profitable.

So any delay, um, any alternation of location or time or place, um, is a concern.

DEAN SUMMERS: The commercial pressures on shipping companies and on captains in particular are enormous. Ah, any delays in the supply chain, any delays in the port or getting into a port, amount to enormous amounts of money in demurrage and other expenses. There is just enormous pressure not to be delayed for five minutes on these ships.

LINTON BESSER: It's hard to know what the crew was feeling, leaving Newcastle and sailing back to Japan.

Just four days earlier the body of their chief engineer was found in the engine room: two suspicious deaths in just two weeks.

But that was not the end of it: there was to be one more violent death to come.

After the 15-day journey north through the Coral Sea, the MV Sage Sagittarius docked back at Kudamatsu.

Superintendent Monji, the company man sent to investigate the first two deaths, was due to report back to head office.

SHUZO MONJI (translation): As per company policy, after seven or eight years at sea employees are usually given an on-land job. Kosaku started work as a superintendent when he was given an on-land job.

LINTON BESSER: In the early hours of October 6 there were mechanical problems with the giant conveyor belt dumping coal off the ship. Just after 3 o'clock in the morning, Monji headed towards the rear of the ship to investigate.

It was the last time he was seen alive.

MICHAEL SQUIRES: The superintendent is the company's representative onboard, so he's the man from ashore who's of a similar level, if you like, ah, to the captain. These people don't do what you might call routine maintenance as part of their job. Um, it, it doesn't happen. Um, you don't have senior managers down oiling squeaky bits of equipment.

LINTON BESSER: Just before 7:30 in the morning an able seaman made a grisly discovery: a human leg protruding from between giant mechanical rollers that power the coal unloader.

Kosaku Monji was dead.

(Michael shows Linton a photograph of the scene of death)

MICHAEL SQUIRES: This is the, the location where he was found. So he's been tangled up in these rollers. A-as the belt's running along, the rollers are rotating and he's got caught up in, in these - you can see how large they are. Here's some people.

LINTON BESSER: The question is: what was he even doing on that part of the ship?

GARRY KEANE: If there's something like that wrong, you wouldn't get the captain going down, for example, working on rollers. So why would somebody who technically in the company is above him be down there doing that same work at that time of the night? That's, that's the first I've heard of that. That sounds ridiculous.

SHUZO MONJI (translation): He said that the Sage Sagittarius had lots of troubles. When he came home he would always tell me he didn't really want to be involved with the troubles of this ship.

LINTON BESSER: Shuzo Monji learned of his son's death when the company telephoned his family later that day

SHUZO MONJI (translation): After that I was told to come home immediately. So I left work early to go home and my wife and I travelled to Tokuyama.

I was told my son's body was at the police station. Then the company representative and I went there. That's where I was shown his body.

LINTON BESSER: The Monji family was never told by the shipping company, or the police, that there had been two other suspicious deaths on the ship only weeks before.

Now, they're afraid to say too much.

SHUZO MONJI (translation): I really want to separate the death of Kosaku as being part of a murder. That's what we really feel. His death is his death.

INTERPRETER (translation): Should the company have told you directly that two deaths had occurred on the same ship? Should they have told you?

SHUZO MONJI (translation): I don't really want to answer that question.

MICHAEL SQUIRES: The third event to me proves that there, there's something going on that, er, is at the heart of all three.

GARRY KEANE: There was somebody onboard that vessel actually killing people. And that, that was something I'd never sort of come across in the, in the years I've been dealing with this stuff.

We have had circumstances where we knew there'd been a murder onboard a vessel and you couldn't prove it. But this was three ports, three murders: just amazing stuff.

LINTON BESSER: The Japan Transport Safety Board didn't report on Monji's death for almost a year. And when it did, its report was only seven pages long and made no reference to the deaths which had occurred in the weeks prior.

The Safety Board has now confirmed it was never told about the two previous fatalities.

DEAN SUMMERS: In, throughout the Japanese investigation they were operating in what you could describe as an "information vacuum." They had no idea that, a little more than two weeks before, a man had fallen to his death inside the engine room. Two weeks before that, the head of the catering department had been lost over the side under very suspicious circumstances.

That is extraordinary and that would have to be almost criminal on the behalf of the company.

MICHAEL SQUIRES: Investigations on, on ships, have like all investigations, have their own difficulties. Most of the trade of Australia is done by foreign ships, so that we're talking about ships owned and flagged in other countries. Maybe it's a flag of convenience, so a... a flag of a country that wants to collect the money and te- not terribly interested in anything else.

LINTON BESSER: Over the next few months, the NSW coroner will try to get to the bottom of what happened onboard.

POLICE INVESTIGATOR: Can you describe what that thing is, hanging out there? Is it the gangplank?

LINTON BESSER: Were they all just tragic accidents or were three men murdered?

POLICE INVESTIGATOR: When all the engines are running, it's normally a lot noisier than this?

CREWMAN: Yes.

POLICE INVESTIGATOR: So in your experience on this ship or any other ship, has there been any other occasion when a person has fallen one or two decks to their death?

CREWMAN: I have not experienced it.

POLICE INVESTIGATOR: When the ship is actually coming in...

LINTON BESSER: The coroner has no power to compel overseas crew to appear at the inquest, which means we may never know what or who killed these men.

DEAN SUMMERS: I wanted the Australian Government to set up a taskforce that cuts across fiefdoms between the Australian Federal Police, the NSW Police and certainly to link in the Japanese investigation; and to have a holistic investigation, a holistic look at what happened: sharing all the resources, sharing all of the information and evidence that was provided.

PHILIP STICKLAND: Many thousands of overseas seafarers, including many F- many Filipinos, work on foreign-flagged vessels that venture into Australian waters in the course of trade. Accordingly, the significance of deaths onboard foreign vessels is a really live one for this inquest.

LINTON BESSER: There are also significant questions for the company to answer: what did it know about the strange activities on board its ship? And did it do enough to protect its crew?

DEAN SUMMERS: We want a full inquiry headed up by the Senate to inform the Australian people.

This is an invisible industry. It's time to shine a light and to understand what happens on these ships and to the seafarers in which we rely on to give us our economic wealth.

LINTON BESSER: These deaths have exposed the plight of an invisible workforce that underpins our foreign trade.

They ship our commodities abroad and they bring home our national wealth. Surely we owe these men more in return.

MICHAEL SQUIRES: If you employ a foreigner to cheaply do what it is that you would like them to do 'cause you don't want to pay Australian prices, there is a price to pay. And it's somebody else who's paying it.

I mean, we've got three dead men, haven't we? Doesn't get much more serious than that.

GAVIN KELSO: You go to work for the beginning of the day and you expect to come home. And, um, you know, that's the real tragedy in all of this. A- and it's continued to keep happening.

KERRY O'BRIEN: The captain of Sage Sagittarius, Venancio Salas, gave evidence to the coroner by video link from Manila on Friday and denied any involvement in the deaths.

The hearing resumes later this month.

Crewmembers contacted by Four Corners were either unavailable or too afraid to talk.

Next week, the nightmare on Everest: the moment the mountain shook. Dramatic footage filmed by mountaineers as they were engulfed by a massive ice avalanche.

Until then, good night.

Background Information

STATEMENTS AND RESEARCH

NYK Statement and Responses to questions [pdf]

Customs PACE Report - A Total History of craft | Australian Customs Service [pfd]

Japan Transport Safety Board Marine Accident Investigation Report [pdf]

Panama Maritime Authority Marine Accident Investigation Report [pdf]

Ships of Shame Report - Inquiry into Ship Safety | The Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia | December, 1992 [pdf]

Troubled Waters - Inquiry into the arrangement surrounding crimes committed at sea | The Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia | June, 2013 [pdf]

MEDIA

Sage Sagittarius: Letters reveal bullying and gun smuggling on vessel dubbed ship of death | ABC News | 1 June, 2015

Sage Sagittarius: Authorities raided 'ship of death' 13 times before three crew killed in suspicious circumstances | ABC News | 1 June, 2015

Advocates demand inquiry into Australian shipping reforms | The Northern Star | 1 June, 2015

'Death Ship' Sage Sagittarius inquest: missing cook had allegations of misconduct on his laptop | The Sydney Morning Herald | 29 May, 2015

Sage Sagittarius inquest: Captain sold guns on board coal ship where three died, court hears | ABC News | 29 May, 2015

Inquest begins into deaths on board coal ship, Sage Sagittarius | ABC News | 28 May, 2015

'Strong evidence conflict magnified' on day coal ship crew member disappeared overboard, inquest hears | ABC News | 28 May, 2015

Union hopes inquest into foreign seafarers deaths on Sage Sagittarius will increase accountability | ABC News | 28 May, 2015

'Death ship' Sage Sagittarius inquest: two crew members 'likely to have met with foul play' | The Sydney Morning Herald | 28 May, 2015

Three crew die in six weeks on 'death ship' Sage Sagittarius | The Daily Telegraph | 5 November, 2012

Third death on Sagittarius unreported for weeks | ABC News | 30 October, 2012

Foul play suspected on Japanese owned coal ship | ABC Local Radio | 7 September, 2012

RELATED WEBSITES

Maritime Union of Australia

International Transport Workers' Federation

Hunterlink Recovery Services | Enhancing the mental wellbeing of maritime workers and their families by addressing substance use, mental health and any conditions causing distress in people's lives.

Australian Seafarers' Welfare Council