Within the classic Taoist book of wisdom is found the parable of the empty boat.  Fishermen, casting their lines from the banks of a stream, get all entangled when an empty boat drifts past them.  They all laugh, knowing that it was just an accident.  But when someone is sitting in the boat, they all throw rocks at him — because the problem was caused by preventable negligence.

Yes, there was a crew aboard the Dali, but was the engine failure a true accident or was it easily preventable?  If a fluke mishap killed the engine, then, in a Taoist sense, the boat was empty.  But if reasonable maintenance might well have prevented this catastrophe, then the boat was occupied, and stones should be thrown.  Various “experts” on maritime affairs have just now said container shipping is a particularly cut-throat and thus price-competitive business.

Our esteemed chief executive has pledged the overly generous American taxpayers’ money to fix the damage.  However, Lloyds of London comes to mind as being on the hook for this mess. 

Such events are actually not all that unusual.  It’s just the immensity of the disaster that causes one to shudder.

Years ago, I was visiting friends in Bremerton, Wash.  Ferry service across the Puget Sound was seriously compromised when the Bremerton Ferry’s engine died just as it was docking at Seattle.  Typically, ferries back their engines to slow down when docking.  But without that reversal of thrust, the ferry slammed into the dock and took it out of operation for several months.  Momentum on the water, especially of a seriously massive vessel, takes a lot of effort to control.  Baltimore Harbor will be impacted as well, for quite a while.

Some mild speculation is suggesting the possibility of an intentional terrorist cause behind this disaster.  Skeptics point out that much greater human harm would’ve occurred should this have happened during rush hour rather than the dead of night.  But precise timing may not have been possible, considering tides and other traffic.  Methodical forensic analysis of the engine failure has yet to provide an answer.

Back to the moral lesson of the Taoist parable.  There’s a serious difference between innocence and guilt.  It also happens that innocent people often wind up as actors in harmful events.  The rest of us have to decide.  Obviously, many of the relevant facts have yet to materialize.  But the proper frame of mind needs to be established...in order to protect the innocent and identify the guilty, if any.

Image: Artondra Hall via Flickr, CC BY 2.0 (cropped).