Police investigate after ferry's logbook disappears

BC Ferries has asked the RCMP to investigate after the October logbook of the Queen of Prince Rupert went missing.

BC Ferries president David Hahn told CBC News the logbook,a monthly record of all activities aboard the ferry, disappeared from the bridge of the ferry last week.

Hahn did not use the word "theft," but said the loss is a very serious infraction.

"Some of the employees did take the log books off the bridge, which probably shouldn't have been allowed, but it was," he said.

"Shortly after that, the book's turned up missing, which I find very odd."

BC Ferries has also launched its own investigation, and alerted Transport Canada and the B.C. Ferry and Marine Workers' Union.

Hahn said he's not suggesting any link to a series of news reports over the weekend documenting safety problems aboard BC Ferries. Those reports quoted safety logs, which, Hahn said, are different from the ship's log.

The union has suggested there wasa pattern of safety problems aboard BC Ferries before the Queen of the North sank along B.C.'s North Coast in March.

5-day shutdown for North Coast ferry

The Queen of Prince Rupert has been the only ferryserving the North Coast since that sinking.

The corporationannounced on Tuesday that the ship will be out of service for five days next week because of an oil leak.

The leak began in October after the ferry ran over a crab trap. The vessel will go for repairs at a dry dock in Alaska from Nov. 19 to 24.