New Zealand loses first ship since WWII

HMNZS Manawanui goin’ down

News sources are reporting that HMNZS Manawanui has run around, caught fire, and sunk off Samoa. Whoopies. Sounds like all the crew and passengers are safe though. This is the first naval vessel lost for the small South Pacific nation since the Second World War.

Yahoo! News has the story;

A Royal New Zealand Navy ship, HMNZS Manawanui, has run aground and sunk off Samoa while carrying out a tropical reef survey, but all 75 crew and passengers on board have been reported safe ashore.

On Sunday, the New Zealand Defence Force said that the Manawanui, the NZ navy’s specialist dive and hydrographic vessel, ran aground near the southern coast of Samoa’s main island of Upolu on Saturday night as its crew were making the survey at the island nation.

Tanuvasa Petone, the Samoa fire commissioner, said that the ship caught fire and sank on Sunday morning after a successful rescue, NZ Radio reported. Three on board needed hospital treatment, he said.

“They’re all on land. They are safe and sound apart from just a few individuals that… have some minor injuries, and so we treated them at the site and transferred to them to the hospital.”

The cause of the grounding was unknown and would need further investigation, the Defence Force said. The vessel later capsized and was below the surface by 9am local time on Sunday, it said.

It was “working with authorities to understand the implications and minimise the environmental impacts”.

Rear-Adml Garin Golding, the Chief of Navy, told a press conference in Auckland that a plane would leave for Samoa on Sunday to bring the rescued crew and passengers back to New Zealand.

He said that some of those rescued had suffered minor injuries, including from walking across a reef.

Judith Collins, the New Zealand defence minister, described the grounding as a “really challenging for everybody on board.”

Ms Collins told the press conference: “I know that what has happened is going to take quite a bit of time to process.

“I look forward to pinpointing the cause so that we can learn from it and avoid a repeat,” she said, adding that an immediate focus was to salvage “what is left” of the vessel.

Video and photos published on local media showed the Manawanui, which cost the country’s government 103 million New Zealand dollars (£48.2 million) in 2018, listing heavily and with plumes of thick grey smoke rising.

Rescue operations were coordinated by Samoan emergency services and Australian Defence Force personnel with the assistance of the New Zealand rescue centre, according to a statement from Samoa Police, Prison and Corrections Service posted on Facebook.

The Manawanui has conducted a range of specialist diving, salvage and survey tasks around New Zealand and across the South West Pacific.

New Zealand’s Navy is already working at reduced capacity with three of its nine ships idle due to personnel shortage.

The King is due to visit Samoa later this month for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, which starts on Oct 21.

Now, in some circles there has been talk about the ship’s skipper. Normally running around and sinking a ship is ignominious enough for a naval captain, but this one took command to some celebration as the first lesbian ship captain for the Royal New Zealand Navy in 2022. It’s especially ironic that her ship is a salvage vessel.

Commander Yvonne Gray, RNZN

Yorkshire woman takes command of Royal New Zealand Navy Ship

Today, Commander Gray took the helm of the RNZN’s dive, hydrographic and salvage vessel HMNZS Manawanui, based at Devonport Naval Base in Auckland. Manawanui is M?ori for ‘steadfast’ or ‘big heart’.

It is her first ship command in a naval career that started in the United Kingdom in 1993 as a warfare officer. Her service as a warfare officer ranged from working on aircraft carriers to frigates and mine hunters.

In 2012, Commander Gray and her wife Sharon moved to New Zealand after falling in love with the country during a campervan holiday.

“The most obvious thing to do was join the Royal New Zealand Navy,” she said.

As the Commanding Officer of the RNZN’s Mine Counter Measures Team she participated in activities all over the world, and her role in maritime evaluation has seen her help ‘work up’ ships and crews to peak efficiency.

She said her eyes lit up at the thought of taking command of Manawanui, which entered service with the Royal New Zealand Navy three years ago.

“Sure, for a lot of warfare officers, that’s the pinnacle of their career to get to ‘drive’ a ship. I prefer to think of my career as a ridgeline, sometimes the view is good and sometimes it is better,” said Commander Gray.

A former student of Bilton Grange Primary School and Harrogate Granby High School, she obtained a Bachelor of Education (Honours) at the University of Lancaster but teaching jobs were scarce in Yorkshire at the time.

Commander Gray discovered the Navy while spending her university holidays leading outdoor activities at a Sea Cadet facility in the Lake District.

“I worked with a lot of Navy people and there was something about their way which appealed to me.”

She signed up for an eight-year commission with the Royal Navy.

“The idea was at the end of eight years you got £23,000. I was really into cooking at the time and I thought do eight years, get £23,000, open my own restaurant.”

But several years in, she knew the Navy life was for her.

“I was really enjoying myself. I could see it was an organisation where I fitted well.”

Her campervan passion is still going strong, but the call of the sea is always there too. Commander Gray returned to the RNZN earlier this year after heading off in late 2019 on a 57,000-kilometre road trip around Australia with Sharon and their dog Dennis.

I’ll reserve judgement on her gender and/or sexuality playing any role in this accident until the requisite inquests are completed.

Category: Breaking News, Kiwis, Navy