SEATTLE, April 17 (UPI) -- A Japanese fishmaster on a U.S. trawler got into a yelling match with the captain about safe operating speed, witnesses said at a hearing on the ship's sinking.
The claim came during testimony Wednesday at a Coast Guard hearing on the sinking of the Alaska Ranger, The Anchorage Daily News reported. The fishmaster, Satoshi Konno, was killed in the disaster.
Konno was on board the trawler as a representative of the Japanese buyers of its catch. Crew members said he would sometimes take over the controls, increasing the speed even when the water was full of ice.
On one occasion, the captain, Steve Slotvig, confronted Konno, forcing him to reduce the speed, Ryan Schuck testified.
"They were yelling and screaming at each other about going fast through the ice," Schuck said. "It ended up with them chest to chest, huffing and puffing at each other."
Slotvig left the ship when it docked in Seattle. His replacement as skipper, Eric Peter Jacobsen, and three other members of the crew of 47 died March 23.
