Time for action on Cook Strait tug, urges lawyer who warned of ‘time bomb’

Tuesday, 4 June 2024

The maritime lawyer who raised the alarm about the lack of a Cook Strait rescue tug says a $600,000 study will only tell the Government what it already knows and now is the time for action – not reports.

The Government in last week’s budget earmarked $600,000 for a feasibility study into a rescue tug boat able to haul stricken Cook Strait ships to safety.

Sixteen months ago, Cook Strait ferry Kaitaki lost all power and, with 864 people aboard, a mayday was issued and a full emergency response activated as it was driven towards a rocky coast in strong winds. The ship’s anchors held and power was eventually restored so it was able to limp into Wellington on its own steam.

In the days after it was revealed that the two harbour tugs that raced to the ferry’s rescue would have been little help as they were not designed for open sea salvage and maritime lawyer John Burton had months earlier told the Transport Accident Investigation Commission the situation was a “ticking time bomb”.

“It is time for action now,” Burton said on Sunday. “Not another expert report.”

The safety case was made with the Wahine disaster 56 years ago, he said.

An inquiry after the 1968 Wahine disaster, in which 53 people died at the harbour heads, found Wellington needed tug boats with the ability to haul stricken ships to safety.

Soon after, Wellington got those but they were replaced between 2009 and 2014 with more-powerful tugs without the design or equipment to haul a large ship to safety in open water.

The Cook Strait was now just as dangerous and Wellington Harbour busier than it was in 1968, Burton said.

He said the study would likely show that the specialised salvage tug was prohibitively expensive but there was a cheaper, viable alternative. That was to up-spec the next new harbour tug so it could do open water salvage.

There had been multiple incidents over the years, proving that it was a matter of when, not if, a Cook Strait rescue tug was needed, he said.

Three months after the Kaitaki mayday, 66,000 tonne container ship Shiling lost power at the Wellington harbour heads and drifted perilously close to shallow water. After it was cleared to leave the capital, it lost all power off Farewell Spit at the top of the South Island and was rescued by a salvage tug that was in the country by chance.

After that, the previous government asked for “urgent advice” on a rescue tug for Cook Strait.

Greater Wellington Regional Council chairperson Daran Ponter, a long time advocate for better Cook Strait rescue options, said funding of a study was the best he could have hoped for.

“The reality is there was always going to be the need for a business case,” he said.

The Government’s cancellation of new Interislander ferries left the country with an ageing fleet and “we can no longer rely on luck to stave off disaster”, Ponter said.

Former Wellington chief pilot Charles Smith previously confirmed he had been raising concerns about the lack of open water salvage ability since about 2004.

In 2018, the Greater Wellington Regional Council commissioned a report on harbour risk. It pointed out that Wellington “does not possess offshore towage capability any longer” and the ability to tow an immobilised vessel in Cook Strait “would not be possible in all but the calmest Cook Strait conditions”.

Harbourmaster Grant Nalder in 2019 reported to a regional council committee that a fully-crewed salvage tug “cannot be justified in terms of cost”, but altering an existing tug was “more cost-effective and pragmatic”.

Correction:** An earlier version of this story quoted John Burton saying an existing tug could be retrofitted for open water use. He actually meant a future new tug could be equipped for open water rescues. (Amended June 4, 2024, 10.15am)**