Court declares crew member 'dead'

A crewman on the ferry Queen of Peace was formally declared dead by the courts today - 30 years after the vessel sank.

The judgment was delivered following an application filed by the wife and heirs of Richard Ellul Sullivan.

The court heard that in November 1977 Mr Ellul Sullivan was part of the crew of the vessel Queen of Peace which was sailing from Reggio Calabria to Benghazi when it sank.

Mr Ellul Sullivan had spent some days on a rubber dinghy but had then died. His corpse was thrown into the sea by another survivor. The wife and heirs said that the Director of Public Registry had not issued a death certificate in his regard even though more than ten years had elapsed since his disappearance at sea.

Mrs Ellul Sullivan and her three children asked the court to declare that Mr Ellul Sullivan had been absent for over ten years and to authorise them to take possession of his estate.

A sworn statement by Carmelo Galea, who had survived the shipwreck, declared that Mr Ellul Sullivan had survived for some days but that he had then died and his corpse was thrown into the sea. An intensive search by the authorities had not found Mr Ellul Sullivan's body. As there were no indications that Mr Ellul Sullivan was alive the court upheld the rquest filed by his wife and children and authorised the heirs to take possession of Mr Ellul Sullivan's estate as though he had died.

The 214 ton Queen of Peace was a former minesweeper which served for some 15 years as a Gozo ferry before being laid up and then sold.It was then sold and employed to ship cargo between Italy and Libya. It sank during a storm.