A crewman working on the Commodore Goodwill has told a court that he had been carrying out routine pre-arrival duties in the minutes prior to a fatal collision with a fishing trawler and that at the time there was “no concern” that the two vessels might collide.

Artur Sevash-Zade told the Royal Court that he had been preparing equipment on the wings adjacent to the Goodwill’s bridge and raising flags in preparation for the freight vessel’s anticipated arrival into St Helier Harbour on the morning of 8 December 2022.

The Goodwill collided with fishing trawler L’Ecume II at 05:35, resulting in the deaths of all three members of L’Ecume’s crew: captain Michael Michieli and crewmen Larry Simyunn and Jervis Baligat. Both Mr Sevash-Zade (35) and his colleague Lewis Carr, the 30-year-old second officer on the Goodwill, deny three counts of manslaughter.

The court heard that an audio recording timed at 5.28am indicated that the bridge door had closed as Mr Sevash-Zade went out to perform his duties, with radar evidence showing that the two vessels were 3.26 nautical miles apart.

Advocate Mike Preston, defending Mr Sevash-Zade, said radar data visible to the Goodwill crew showed the ships would pass at a distance of 0.09 nautical miles in seven-and-a-half minutes’ time.

Mr Sevash-Zade said he had left the bridge having been cleared to carry out his duties by Mr Carr.

Mr Preston asked how Mr Carr was at the time.

“He didn’t raise any concern, he looked calm and his voice was calm as normal,” Mr Sevash-Zade said. He added that he was not worried, as in his experience previous cases where ships were on a “close distance” course had been resolved.

“There was no concern that we would go into danger,” he said.

The court heard that Mr Sevash-Zade had raised two flags and removed covers from equipment on the bridge wings, immediately after which he then saw how close L’Ecume was.

Mr Preston said the crewman had then gone back inside and told Mr Carr about the oncoming vessel, asking: “Is this f***ing guy asleep?”

Mr Sevash-Zade said that in the immediate aftermath of the crash, a “man overboard” alarm had been activated, and he had attempted to see whether L’Ecume was visible, but did not see anything.

Ukrainian national Mr Sevash-Zade spoke in Russian, with an interpreter translating his comments into English.

The court had previously heard that after around two years carrying out social work after leaving university, Mr Sevash-Zade changed career and qualified from a maritime college, taking up his first job in the role of ordinary seaman in 2015 at the age of 25.

After working on four ships as an ordinary seaman, Mr Sevash-Zade said in 2021 he had attained the role of able seaman, which he carried out on two vessels before joining the Goodwill.

The court heard that since his arrest in July 2024 and court appearance the next day, Mr Sevash-Zade had been held in custody for two months, subsequently staying in Jersey and finding some work for the period leading up to this month’s trial.

Although he acknowledged that his English had improved during his time in Jersey, Mr Sevash-Zade said that in 2022 his linguistic ability had been sufficient for him to carry out his duties, and there had no difficulties regarding speaking or understanding English at the time of the collision.

The jury trial – now in its third week – is scheduled to last four weeks.

Commissioner Sir John Saunders is presiding.