Abandon ship order floated
KiwiRail has been asked how close the captain came to ordering that the ship be abandoned.
Wellington mayor Tory Whanau was warned that 864 people aboard stricken a Cook Strait ferry may have to abandon ship, as the 22,365-tonne Kaitaki remained powerless in stormy conditions off the south coast.
Multiple investigations are under way after a cooling system problem last Saturday resulted in the Interislander ferry losing power to all four engines and drifting towards rocks.
The captain declared a mayday, triggering a huge emergency response while lifejackets were handed out to passengers.
More than two hours later, and after the captain dropped anchors and stopped the ferry’s drift towards the rapidly-nearing coast, engineers managed to restore power, and the ferry limped into Wellington under escort.
KiwiRail has been asked how close the captain came to ordering that the ship be abandoned. Requests to interview Interislander general manager Walter Rushbrook about the wider incident have now entered a third day.
Whanau confirmed that she was contacted by the Wellington Region Emergency Management Office (Wremo) on Saturday evening with a ‘‘be prepared expectation’’ that passengers may have to abandon ship.
‘‘Everyone had lifejackets, but it was not to that level yet.’’
Wremo group manager Jeremy Holmes confirmed that he was notified of problems at 5.03pm. Maritime NZ data shows that this was eight minutes after KiwiRail contacted Maritime NZ about engine troubles on the ship, and three minutes before a mayday was declared.
This triggered a response to make sure people were ready ‘‘should there be people hitting the water or coming ashore’’, Holmes confirmed. He was not told of any imminent threat of this happening. ‘‘We would have been involved when people hit the shore,’’ he said.
Master mariner Kevin Judkins said abandoning ship was ‘‘really, really the last resort’’, as it was almost always safer to be on the much bigger ship.
Deaths relating to the 1968 Wahine tragedy near the Wellington harbour heads were associated with those aboard lifeboats, he said.
He praised the actions of the Kaitaki’s crew, who appeared to do all the right things by deploying anchors and stopping the ship until it could get working again.
Ships usually needed 5m of anchor chain for every 1m of water depth, Judkins said – the Kaitaki eventually stopped in 30m of water – as the chain itself sat on the seabed and asked as a ‘‘shock absorber’’.
Greater Wellington Regional Council chairman Daran Ponter said he was notified of the evolving incident within ‘‘10 to 20 minutes’’ of trouble starting.
At the time, passengers had been given lifejackets, the ship had drifted, but one anchor was down. He was not told that the ship might have to be abandoned.
Justin Allan, from Maritime NZ’s Rescue Coordination Centre New Zealand, would not comment on how close the captain was to ordering people off the Kaitaki, saying the information was ‘‘operational’’ and had to come from KiwiRail.