Not again ? MV Rena take II

MSC MV Carole suffers same fate as MSC MV Rena ? 

The 294 meter long, 60639 dwt container vessel MSC Carole went aground on a reef near Jakarta, Indonesia (-6° 1′ 35.904″, 106° 53′ 12.4794″).  The MSC Carole was en route to Jakarta fromFremantle when it struck the reef near the entrance to the harbor.  The vessel was proceeding at 7.5 knots and is firmly stuck on the reef.  Initial attempts to refloat the vessel failed.   Reports state there is no sign of any fuel or pollution being released.  The reason why the MSC Carole struck the reef has not yet been reported.  The MSC Carole is the second largest container vessel currently operating in the world.

This is starting to look like  a company culture is developing.

MV Rena: Well that's nice

I see the owner of  the MV Rena has apologised to Tauranga

" Costamare Shipping Company SA managing director Diamantis Manos today issued an apology via video in which he apologised and vowed to co-operate with the investigation.

"To the people of Tauranga, we want to say that we are deeply sorry for the situation that has arisen and the threat you are now facing from fuel oil from the vessel washing up on the beaches in your beautiful part of the world,'' he said.

"It is our ship that went aground and we apologise without hesitation for what has happened.''

The company had sent experts from around the world to help deal with the situation and they were working closely with Maritime New Zealand and other agencies, as well as salvers, to try to stabilise the ship and mitigate its effects. "

That is the right thing for him to and I see that the company will co-operate with the TAIC

" It would co-operate with the Transport Accident Investigation Commission's investigation and had invited it to visit its offices so it could see the safety management system employed on the Rena. "

I know a little about these investigations and I can assure you a lot of very clever seafares will be talking amongst each other preparing some very interesting questions.

I see over at Kiwiblog Maritime New Zealand is getting a lot of flack the truth is most of this is not fair  what should be getting flack is the process in my opinion. When an incident like this happens the first thing that needs to happen is a salver is appointed this happened fairly fast and the salver is responsible to trhe owners not the New Zealand government by declaring MV Rena   and I haven't got my terminology right but effectively a dangerous ship MNZ have the ability to order the salver to do something  or veto an action they propose, that was actually smart. In my opinion the salver should despite being employed and payed by the owners should be responsible to the government.

The volunteering seems to be a total cock up and as far as I know this is being managed by MNZ I think this is wrong I would have left it to an other agency probably the regional council, MNZ have enough to do  dealing with the oil, ship and containers at sea. Ringing back people who have left their contact details on a 0800 number is a distraction, as can be seen on tonight's TVNZ News with a woman saying she hasn't heard back from them  despite  calling last Friday.

" Maritime New Zealand salvage manager Bruce Anderson confirmed this afternoon that salvage teams had been on the craft for four hours today, and had just arranged an extra hour after concluding it was safe to operate on.

Mr Anderson said the vessel was holding together and water was pushing it further onto the reef, with the entire front section now flooded.

While they have managed to board the ship, transport minister Steven Joyce said it may be too dangerous to work inside the hull of the craft.

"I have to take my hat off to these guys. They're working in a challenging, and can I say dangerous, environment."

Now this actually good news I haven't had a chance to discuss it yet but there is a real possibility that when the ship breaks up they will be able to float the stern I gather and get it to land that would make the oil extraction easy and the hull could be  cleaned and then sunk creating a new reef. The bulkheads will be the key to this and the salvage team will be able to determine there condition. I could of course be wrong and it might turn on its tits and sink.

OK I have had a look at the marine forecasts and things look a lot better for the Plenty  area for the next few days the tugs that are holding the stern on the reef might want to think about towing it ashore, the salvage team might want to be making sure the stern will float and the  Navy might want to think about the explosives they need to complete what the sea has started.

The Greens I note have attacked the idea of off shore oil drilling and I also note Phil Goff has said it is  a bad idea. I disagree but we need to have proper risk assessment and then meet that with assets. The truth is that MNZ as I pointed out in this blog when I had a crack at No Right Turn did not expect a 46 000 tonne container ship to drive its self  onto a charted reef at 17  knots ( 32  Kph ).

I guess you could argue that we need to put warning lights on reefs, Astrolabe will currently be returning a radar  return that makes it unnecessary.

Mv Rena : It gets worse.

OK things have gone badly wrong today, but this was always going to happen the issue was would it happen with the oil on board or after we had got it off. I have been reading various opinions on blogs and in the media that seem to think this ship a salvageable and we will have it tied up under arrest at Tauranga. That isn't going to happen. The MV Rena was conned into Astrolabe Reef at 17.5 knots ( 32 Kph ), MV Rena is 235 meter ship with a weight of 46,000 tonnes, 200 meters of her are on the reef her outer  hull has collapsed from 3 meters to less than a meter. Bulkheads are giving way through out the ship, water has entered the bow, MV Rena is moving on the reef that increases the stress she is under, expect more things to go wrong.

" New Zealand's worst maritime environmental disaster has been realised, Environment Minister Nick Smith says.

Smith told a press conference this afternoon the oil haemorrhaging from the ship's punctured hull today was ''fivefold'' the rate it had been in the days after its grounding on the Astrolabe Reef.

Transport Minister Steven Joyce told the public that Tauranga residents could expect to see oil washing up on beaches for months to come.

"It is my view that the tragic events that we are seeing unfolding were absolutely inevitable from the point when the Rena ran on to the reef in the early hours of Wednesday morning," Smith said.

He said the situation had become "New Zealand's worst maritime environmental disaster".

I can't argue with that but remember so far we haven't lost any lives lets keep it that way. Maritime NZ ( MNZ ) made the right call getting people off the ship.

I hate having a go at other bloggers but  No Right Turn is talking crap, something that is very unusual for him. I enjoy his blog  but disagree with his comments policy.

" At this stage its worth reminding people of our capability to respond to an oil spill. Below is exactly one third of our national oil recovery fleet:

Fills you with confidence that they'll be able to handle it, doesn't it?"


I try to keep away from issues I know fuck all about and Malcolm ? ( I think ), has gone looking for an angle and fucked up big time. He has forgotten about the private sector he has also forgotten about the Navy and the port companies assets around NZ that are available to the salvers and MNZ.

I was on the Taranui when it was built it was the first of these vessels commissioned it was just before she was handed over to the New Zealand Refining Company.

" The new mobile oil skimmer barge Taranui is the first of three vessels to be deployed around the New Zealand coast to collect oil or spread dispersant during a spill. She will be leased to the New Zealand Refining Company on a five-plus-five year agreement, and will be based at Marsden Point, near the Northland city of Whangarei, as part of their oil spill response plan. The skimmers have primarily been designed for tier three response - national incidents where the MSA is brought in to handle the incident in conjunction with the regional and local council. This does not preclude their use in tier two incidents. That will be governed by the cost of the cleanup, including the logistics of moving a barge to the cleanup site, and providing trained personnel to operate the barges."

This as I said was the first skimmer barge the subsequent two boats were payed for by the 5 + 5 year lease by NZRC. ie the tax payer owns but didn't pay for these boats. A very good public / private sector partnership.

" Taranui is the result of 18 months of planning, design and construction by the Maritime Safety Authority following the Jody F Millennium spill in Gisborne in 2002, which highlighted the need for such a vessel. Later that year, during the Tai Ping incident in Bluff, the authority borrowed one from its Australian counterparts. 'Simply put, Taranui will allow the MSA to go to oil spills, rather than wait for the spills to come to us,' says the MSA.


Taranui will stay within harbour limits when on her own, but she will be able to go further offshore, say 5km, if an assisting vessel is close by. She weighs 2.7 tonnes with outboards but no deck equipment, and three tonnes total, and is usually manned by three crew, a ticketed skipper and two hands, one on the pumps and one at the bow to direct the skimmer. 'The policy is to get out there quickly, and come back slowly,' says her skipper, Neil Roweth of the Maritime Safety Authority. Her five 150mm deep runners provide useful grip in turns, and spray is thrown well clear. She is surprisingly manoeuvrable, as the two outboards provide good separation."

Now this is why I am so pissed off with No Right Turn, these vessels were never designed to work 7 miles off shore but within harbour limits.

" Professional Skipper magazine compliments the MSA and the NZRC for their initiative and contribution to being prepared for this important risk of pollution."

 ( Disclosure: I work for Professional Skipper magazine but these are my opinions not the magazines official opinion )

Lets have a look at groundings and there have been  4 that have involved significant oil spills .

" The following list includes the more significant marine oil spills that occurred around New Zealand since 1990.

• 1998, Don Wong 529 - Stewart Island (with 400 tonnes of automotive gas oil spilled)
• 1999, Rotoma - Poor Knights Island (oily bilge discharge of approx 7 tonnes spilled)
• 2000, Sea Fresh - Chatham Islands (60 tonnes of diesel spilled)
• 2002, Jody F Millennium – Gisborne (25 tonnes of fuel oil spilled) ".

The Jodie F Millennium resulted in the  barges No Right Turn disparages.

A Labour MP accused I think Joyce of lying today but I can't find the story so will  hold off on who I think it was. Nobody is lying , the truth is nobody knows, that ship could break up tonight or next week or next month or even next year time and tide wait for no man