Female captain of NZ ship that sank subjected to vicious online abuse

Wellington: New Zealand Defence Minister Judith Collins says Kiwi servicewomen are being abused in the street following gender-based attacks levied at the captain of the HMNZS Manawanui.

The Manawanui sank in Samoan waters on Sunday morning after it lost power and hit a reef during surveying work in rough seas.

It was New Zealand’s first naval loss since World War II.

Smoke rises from the sinking HMNZS Manawanui in Upolu, Samoa, on Sunday.Credit: AP

All 75 crew made it to shore safely after an evacuation order was issued by Captain Yvonne Gray.

Following the disaster, Captain Gray has been subjected to vicious online abuse by online trolls, with some suggesting she was promoted above her station due to her gender.

Collins said it was a “deeply concerning misogynistic narrative” from “armchair admirals”, including one from Melbourne.

“I’m appalled to hear that our women in uniform are being abused in the street because of this incident,” she said.

The crew of the HMNZS Manawanui arrive at RNZAF Base Auckland from Samoa, in Whenuapai, New Zealand, on Monday.Credit: NZDF via AP

NZ also currently has – for the first time – a female defence minister and chief of army.

“We are all appointed on merit, not gender,” Collins said.

Standing alongside Collins at a press conference on Thursday, Chief of Navy, Rear Admiral Garin Golding, said the gender-based attacks were “disgusting”.

“It’s impacting our people and it needs to stop,” he said.

Manawanui has since been located 30 metres below the surface and inspected for environmentally damaging leaks both by Samoan and NZDF divers.

Samoan officials fear ocean contamination by fuels and oils from the Manawanui, but Collins said fuel storage tanks remained intact.

“There are reports of some small leaks but these are very small amounts and they’re from the pipes that take the fuel around the ship,” she said.

“Current indications are that little to none of this initial fuel has come onto any beaches or onto the reef.

The HMNZS Manawanui at the Three Kings islands off the coast New Zealand in December.Credit: NZDF via AP

“Maritime New Zealand modelling estimates that only 10 per cent of this is likely to remain longer than 24 hours ... because it is being dispersed out to sea by wind and waves.”

“While this remains an incredibly serious incident, and it will be for a long time to come, it is tracking as well as we could hope for at this point.”

Some in Samoa have called on an apology from New Zealand, which Collins declined to offer.

“We’re obviously deeply traumatised. Frankly, our navy has gone through a very tough time,” she said.

“We are dealing with the immediate issues and anything like that, government to government, would be dealt with by the prime minister, if at all.”

Samoa has suffered various indignities at NZ’s hands, including time under administration from 1914 to 1962.

NZ has been the source of major Samoan measles and flu outbreaks, including one which killed one-fifth of the population, and the deadly 1929 Black Saturday shooting when NZ police killed 11 Samoans.

Mistreatment of Samoans has prompted two formal apologies, delivered by the prime minister Helen Clark in 2002, and Jacinda Ardern in 2021.

It is not yet clear how the Manawanui came to hit the reef and sink. That will be the subject of a formal Court of Inquiry.

Commodore Melissa Ross will lead that probe, with three senior military members joining her, including a secondment from the Australian navy: Commodore Dean Battilana.

An interim report is due mid-November.

Rear Admiral Golding said he would make as much of the report public as possible, only withholding information on privacy and national security grounds.

“The inquiry is carried out in confidence, with statutory protections for witnesses to enable them to give frank and full evidence,” he said.

AAP