Captained by a former teacher, Commander Yvonne Gray, the $100 million – the HMNZS Manawanui – ran aground, burst into flames, and sank off the coast of Samoa while conducting a reef survey of the island of Upolu. There has been no official report as to why the ship lost power.
Gray moved to New Zealand from Britain in 2012 and unexpectedly joined the New Zealand Navy after a holiday there with her lesbian wife and plans to open a restaurant. She had previously served in the British Navy.
Gray’s decision raised serious questions about the competence of those who carried out the hydrographic work. It must be assumed that competence is secondary in the New Zealand Navy, and that “inclusiveness” and commitment to “liberal values” are primary judging by various mainstream media reports.
Thanks to Gray, the entire crew abandoned the specialized vessel when it ran aground on Saturday evening.
From Gray’s bio on the Navy’s website: “This was her first ship command in a naval career. 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.”
Military commentators were surprised by her order to simply abandon ship: “The BIG difference between a merchant ship and a Navy ship captain is I just have to protect the lives of my crew while a warship must protect a convoy, a carrier strike group or an entire nation […] Am I saying this captain should have sent a crew member to their probable death in order to save this ship? No, but leaving a skeleton crew on for firefighting is not probable death, it’s possible death.”
The former sailor continued: “Ten percent of the [NZ] fleet is the equivalent of the US Navy losing about 30 ships. Is that worth a few men possibly dying to protect? Of course it is.” He said he believed that “Gray made a dangerous choice by abandoning ship” and worse still, that she was “going to be decorated for making this poor choice”.
This particular part of the coast had not been surveyed since 1980 according to Navy sources, and the task had been to gather information ahead of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting scheduled for the end of October.
The vessel was built in 2003 at the Myklebust Verft shipyard in Gursken, Norway, for the Norwegian company Østensjø Rederi, which provides marine services to the oil and gas industry, and was originally named Edda Fonn.
In August 2018, it was purchased for the New Zealand Navy and retrofitted with state-of-the-art diving and hydrographic systems at the Orskov Yard in Frederikshavn, Denmark. In May 2019, the vessel was delivered to New Zealand and on June 7, at the Devonport naval base, it was commissioned into the Navy.
The ship was on its third deployment to the South West Pacific this year.
The country’s Defence Minister Judith Collins praised Gray’s “leadership”, calling the evacuation “something of a triumph, frankly”.
No comments.
By submitting a comment you grant Free West Media a perpetual license to reproduce your words and name/web site in attribution. Inappropriate and irrelevant comments will be removed at an admin’s discretion. Your email is used for verification purposes only, it will never be shared.