UPDATE (12.32pm): A container ship is afloat again and in tow after it struck rocks on Mount Maunganui at about 10.35am.
The 133m ship, Schelde Trader, ran aground between North West Rock and North Rock after losing power when departing the Port of Tauranga.
Port of Tauranga tugs and pilot boat move Schelde Trader out to anchor after being on the rocks for about 20 minutes.
 Scheelde Trader at Mount Maunganui this morning. |
Two tugs headed to the vessel and refloated it.
It was towed away from the harbour entrance and is at anchor.
Port of Tauranga commercial manager Graeme Marshall says no oil has leaked from the vessel.
He says it will be brought back into the harbour for an inspection once it is deemed safe to move it.
Image: Google Earth
The vessel loaded fuel and containers at the port ahead of its scheduled voyage to Noumea.
This grounding comes 24 days after the Rena ran aground on Astrolabe Reef about 25km off the coast from Tauranga.
Keep checking SunLive for more information on this incident.
At the scene? Call 0800 SUNLIVE with your news tip.
email photos to newsroom@thesun.co.nz
18 comments
Welcome to Tauranga
Posted on 28-10-2011 12:42 | By AshB
Welcome to Tauranga, Please aim here......
Are They Asleep
Posted on 28-10-2011 13:05 | By lilybit
It makes one wonder. What are the Captains of these ships up to. Are they watching where they are going or going where they are watching. I am sure they have been here before so must know where they can, and where they cannot travel in the channel.
Is this a joke?
Posted on 28-10-2011 13:09 | By SheldonNesdale
Is this for real? Surely not...
Somebody needs a white cane
Posted on 28-10-2011 13:17 | By Writerman
And here were most of us under the impression the pilot would know where he was going, even if the skipper didn't. Maybe somebody doesn't see so well?
Please read the article
Posted on 28-10-2011 13:33 | By Bronzewing
There was a pilot on board. The ship lost power. Depending on whether the helm was will decide where the ship goes when power is lost. When exiting the harbour you turn right in the entrance. Lose power you keep turning right and guess what? There is a big lump of rock in the way. Water is different to land. You don't have brakes and can't just coast to a stop. There is massive current flow in the entrance at the moment with the big tides. Even if the ship can drop anchor immediately, it will then swing in an arc around the point it is anchored and if there are bricks inside the swing circle, it will bang into them. Give the Port staff some credit for their extremely quick actions.
Deregulation delivers
Posted on 28-10-2011 13:41 | By IanM
Key messaging - "the ship lost power". Is this another rusty bucket operating under a flag of convenience with poorly trained and paid crews? Deregulation of the shipping industry back around 1993 is what delivered the Rena onto our reef, and this is likely just another one that can be attributed to the same ultimate causation.
From the story....
Posted on 28-10-2011 13:48 | By Jolene Publique
It says that it lost power rather than a blind pilot/skipper crashing it into the rocks.
Rocks a problem
Posted on 28-10-2011 16:40 | By CCarr
Well that does it!!! lets just blow up all the rocks!!! Problem solved! ........Yes I'm being facetious
Need my glasses
Posted on 28-10-2011 14:31 | By Justintime
Seems like those people claiming the Master / Pilot cannot see are afflioted with the same problem. Jolene is right, it says it lost power. HANJIN BOMBAY did last year and same scenario. Maybe Port of Tauranga needs to consider bringing the tugs out further because the Mount entrance gives little room for error.
Not a rust bucket
Posted on 28-10-2011 14:48 | By Bronzewing
The ship was built in 2003 and sails under the Netherlands flag. Doesn't raise a lot of flags. Sometime things just happen. From photos of the ship being towed off the rocks, the crew were certainly able to restore power very quickly.
basics
Posted on 28-10-2011 17:25 | By encore
perhaps port of tga need to implement a better system of safe entry and exit for THEIR clients. e.g. a tug close by from further out to sea.
Runnin' on empty
Posted on 28-10-2011 18:59 | By ShadE
Must have run out of gas, should have got some off of the Rena.
Common sense? Surely not?!?
Posted on 28-10-2011 21:10 | By NotShetland
@Bronzewing - I think you must be disillusioned. This is the first sensible comment I have seen on here in a while. Had the Rena incident never happened then this article would barely have made the news. Common sense people. We all have it but only some of us choose to use it.
CONTAINER SHIP
Posted on 28-10-2011 21:52 | By YOGI
While they were towing it and so it was not going anywhere fast they should have tied it up out at Astrolab Reef. Look at it there are a couple a cranes on it to lift of containers, what a waste an oppurtunity.
Any More ?
Posted on 29-10-2011 09:03 | By straw
Thank goodness for the dry humour here. Deregulation has really put us all into an even bigger debt than should hsve been expected. Leaky homes,?Pike Mine collapse,NZ is now the "Rust Bucket Shipping Passage"of the World. Who checks the checkers of these ships to see they are up to International standards.?
Many ignorant comments
Posted on 29-10-2011 09:23 | By Gee Really
More and more the ignorant comments from some of the people who post here make you question anything they write. Don't some of them even read the story before launching into hate, attack and ridicule. Actually they're often the ones who are ridiculous. If they'd read the story, it was nothing about navigational failings. It was all about loss of power. It's a rare occurrence, probably rarer than in a modern car. Nothing to do with deregulation. Far more failings in the days of state control. Here's a suggestion: read the story thoroughly, engage brain, then write.
@straw
Posted on 29-10-2011 09:58 | By The Tomahawk Kid
Deregulation! - You must be kidding! Pike River met and exceeded every single regulation it was required to meet, and probably caused by the fact government regulations denied them the safest method of mining (open cast) and forced them into using inappropriate methods. Leaky homes were all inspected and PASSED by WHOM? Whoever takes on jobs like these should be suitably qualified to do the job, and suitably covered to pay for the consequences of their failure. WHO allowed THEM to take on those responsibilities ILL PREPARED for the task? Your statement is like firing a shotgun into a crowd, hoping to hit somebody that may have been partly to blame!
Stupidity
Posted on 31-10-2011 12:35 | By Sheryl_is_awesome
I can see a lot of people on this page didnt read the article. When a ship loses power there is no way of steering it. Need I say more!!!
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