Ship diced with danger last year

The huge bulk carrier Taharoa Express, which nearly ran aground on Sunday, drifted without power for several hours last year before declaring an emergency, the Maritime Safety Authority revealed yesterday.

It was only after the ship began drifting helplessly towards the Northland coast last March that the master alerted authorities.

The delay appalled the authority, which was thrown into crisis mode as the threat of a major stranding with potential for an environmental disaster escalated.

On Sunday, the ship came perilously close to going aground again when its engine failed as it berthed at an offshore loading terminal at Taharoa, just south of the entrance to Kawhia Harbour.

By the time engineers restarted the engine, the stern of the 269m-long ship was in less than 2m of water.

The ship eventually berthed safely yesterday.

Sunday's incident caused serious alarm in the authority because of the potential for an environmental disaster.


Yesterday, officials related how appalled they had been last March not to be told immediately of that incident.

On Sunday, the ship was unladen but last year as it drifted for hours without power it had 130,000 tonnes of ironsand for Japan's steel mills on board.

It dropped an anchor and tugs raced to the Northland coast.

It was eventually towed fully laden back to Japan for repairs.

The March emergency began as engineers discovered a crack in the propeller shaft when the ship was on its berth at Taharoa. Authority director Russell Kilvington said the shaft was repaired under instructions from ClassNK, a ship classification society in Japan, and the authority.

It was ordered to return to Japan at low speed because of the damage.

After taking on more light fuel for low-speed running, it headed north but stopped several times along the west coast as concern increased about vibrations in the shaft, and engineers ground more metal off the shaft.

"The next thing we heard was, 'We have been adrift for several hours', and, 'Hello, is that the Northland coast?' and that is what caused the panic," Mr Kilvington said.

"We were appalled by what they had done [unauthorised grinding of the shaft] and the way they had not communicated that. We were very, very, annoyed. They have heard us venting our spleen on them."

Mr Kilvington was asked if he trusted the ship's owners and operators Arafra Shipping, a Panamanian subsidiary of Nippon Yusen KK.

"I don't think I am prepared to comment on that. We are in constant dialogue with them. Put it that way."

Mr Kilvington said the entire operation at Taharoa would be reviewed as part of a risk assessment and it was likely there would be big changes, including a tug at every berthing.

"But I am not prepared to speculate. ... I think we will want a series of extra conditions and then the charterer can decide if they are prepared to stump up with the extra costs."

- NZPA