A diver floats over the HMNZS Manawanui off the coast of Apia, Samoa. Image: NZ Defence Force
The New Zealand navy has begun recovering fuel and oil from its sunken hydrological ship, the HMNZS Manawanui, off the coast of Apia, Samoa.
And a court of inquiry into the ship’s sinking found that the crew failed to turn off the ship’s autopilot.
The NZ Navy’s senior national representative for the recovery mission codename Operation Resolution, Commodore Andrew Brown said the weather had been favourable and work had been proceeding with a barge on site.
“I can report the salvors’ divers began the process of extracting fuel and other pollutants from the ship and transferring it into tank-tainers on the barge,” he said.
“As always, progress is dependent on favourable sea and weather conditions which the salvors monitor daily.
“There is a large quantity of automotive gas oil and other pollutants held on board in various locations throughout the ship and we are expecting removal to take weeks,” he said.
Commodore Brown says the barge will make periodic trips to shore to empty the recovered fuel and oil for storage in Apia while the NZ Government works on its disposal.
“This stage of the fuel removal process is complex and technical and it is extremely important we do a careful and thorough job,” Commodore Brown said.
“While the salvors’ fuel recovery work is progressing, our NZDF staff continue to support sea water sample collection and monitoring above and around the Manawanui.”
He said the Samoan Government is managing the overall response with the salvors and NZ Defence Force working very closely with them.
He described the start of work to remove pollutants from the ship as “a major milestone”.
COURT OF INQUIRY
NZ’s Chief of Navy Rear Admiral Garin Golding is leading a Court of Inquiry into the sinking.
“The direct cause of the grounding has been determined as a series of human errors which meant the ship’s autopilot was not disengaged when it should have been,” he said.
“The crew did not realise Manawanui remained in autopilot and … mistakenly believed its failure to respond to direction changes was the result of a thruster control failure.”
Rear-Adm Golding said standard procedure from the mistaken assessment of a thruster control failure should have seen the crew check that the ship was under manual control, not in autopilot.
“This check did not occur. Remaining in autopilot resulted in the ship maintaining a course toward land, until grounding and eventually stranding,” he said.
Rear Admiral Golding said a separate disciplinary process would need to be begin once the Court of Inquiry had finished, sometime in the first three months of this year.
He also spoke of “a number of identified contributing factors” which led to the ship’s grounding which will be considered as well.
BACKGROUND
On Saturday, October 5, 2024, the Manawanui was conducting survey operations near Apia in a strong breeze of up to 25 knots and moderate swell.
The crew’s attempt at a routine turn to starboard failed when the ship did not respond as intended and it soon left the approved survey area.
Efforts to stop the ship failed as it sped up towards a reef and grounded for the first time at more than 10 knots. It then travelled another 635 metres (700 yards), grounding repeatedly, before it stranded.
The ship’s autopilot was turned off 10 minutes later when the ship’s autopilot was disengaged but efforts to get the ship off the reef failed.
About 30 minutes after the initial grounding, the ship was abandoned without serious injury or death. The ship suffered a series of catastrophic fires then capsized and sank early on Sunday, October 6.
