‘Otago’ nearly capsized, report reveals
AUCKLAND: A navy ship came close to capsizing with 75 people aboard in treacherous conditions in the Southern Ocean, Defence Minister Ron Mark has revealed.
The potential for loss of life was high but HMNZS Otago’s commanding officer managed to manoeuvre the vessel through mountainous seas and floating ice.
Mr Mark said the incident took place in waves at least 20m high which were a result of climate change and which would affect the types of ships New Zealand needed in the future.
Mr Mark said he was told of the incident by Lieutenantcommander Lorna Gray, commanding officer of offshore patrol vessel Otago, after she and her crew returned from a nineday deployment to the Southern Ocean last December to seek out illegal fishers.
It was Ltcmdr Gray’s first mission to the Southern Ocean since taking the helm of the vessel in June 2017. Ltcmdr Gray is formerly from the Taieri.
Mr Mark recounted the story yesterday during the launch of the strategic defence policy statement which has highlighted climate change as a challenge for the Defence Force.
‘‘The sea state [Ltcmdr Gray] described to me, the conditions they’re now encountering with ice that they cannot safely navigate through,’’ Mr Mark said.
‘‘The manner in which she had to manoeuvre HMNZS Otago to prevent it capsizing, and the potential for her losing her complement was high, very high.’’
About 75 people were on board, including Royal New Zealand Navy crew and staff from the Ministry for Primary Industries and GNS Science.
A Defence Force spokesman said: ‘‘The Royal New Zealand Navy always expects testing condition in the Southern Ocean and is confident that its personnel are trained to deal with any maritime conditions.’’
Mr Mark said climate change brought fresh challenges for the navy, including 24m waves, ice shelves breaking off and floating ice ships could not get through.
He said Otago was forced to hail fishing vessels and ask them to come out of the ice so they could be boarded for inspection, which he described as a ‘‘ludicrous’’ situation.
‘‘Icestrengthening, icecapable vessels have got to be on the radar. If we add to that the military capability, we’re starting to get a picture of what we need,’’ the minister said.
‘‘Global warming is real. It’s happening, the consequences are being seen and our defence force people are in the front line.’’
The defence document is also unusually explicitly critical of China for a New Zealand policy statement.
The paper says that as China had integrated into the international order, it had not consistently adopted the governance and values championed by the order’s traditional leaders.
‘‘Both domestically and as a basis for international engagement, China holds views on human rights and freedom of information that stand in contrast to those that prevail in New Zealand.’’
It says China has set an alternative model of development — a liberalising economy without liberal democracy — challenging conventional wisdom in the West that the two go handinhand.
Mr Mark equated its frankness on China to its nuclearfree position and being the first country to give women the vote, rather than it being a ‘‘pickonChina moment’’.
‘‘We should never shy from being frank and honest because that’s not the way New Zealanders have done it in the past.
‘‘New Zealand is an independent nation; it has an independent foreign policy. Sometimes we need to be prepared to make ourselves heard and to back ourselves.’’ — NZME