A Royal New Zealand Navy specialist dive and hydrographic vessel, the HMNZS Manawanui, has caught fire, capsized, and sunk off the coast of the Samoan island of Upolu while surveying a reef on the night of Oct. 5.
All 75 crew and passengers were rescued; two people needed hospital treatment for minor injuries, one with a dislocated shoulder and another with back injuries.
The ship initially ran aground the reef, and after unsuccessful attempts to refloat it, the Manawanui began to list.
According to Chief of Navy Rear Admiral Garin Golding, the people onboard were then evacuated on the morning of Oct. 6, using four life rafts and two rigid-hull inflatable boats, one of which “flipped on the reef” during the rescue attempt, forcing those who were on board to walk to land.
Golding described the conditions at the time as “extremely challenging.”
“Rescuers battled currents and winds that were pushing the life rafts and sea boats toward the reefs, and swells made the rescue effort particularly challenging,” the NZ Defence Force said.
“Those on board the lifeboats and sea boats were transferred to vessels that responded to the rescue call and were transported ashore.”
Defence Minister Judith Collins suggested a power outage may have caused the ship to run aground.
“We need to find out what that happened, apparently it lost power, I’m aware of that, and ended up aground on the reef,” she said Oct. 7.
After all the survivors were ashore, the ship caught fire, capsized, and sank.
While efforts are underway to salvage some or all of the vessel, locals familiar with conditions say a strong outgoing tide as it went down means it is likely there will be nothing left. They reported a strong odour of oil that had leaked from the sunken ship.
The Defence Force has sent planes to Samoa to bring the crew home, including a Super Hercules on what would be its first international deployment. It has said it will work with local authorities to assess the environmental impacts of the event.
There would be a Court of Inquiry to establish exactly what had happened to the 20-year-old ship, which was originally used to map the floor of the North Sea for Norway.
It was purchased by the Ardern government in 2018, which said at the time that it would cost $103 million (US$63.5 million) to buy and convert. That was completed in 2019.
Collins confirmed naval ships don’t have replacement insurance.
“Never have had,” she said. “There are some things around insurance, but I cannot go into that for the very sensible reasons for anybody who has ever dealt with insurance companies, you have to be very careful and therefore I’m not going to go into it.”
