Female captain not to blame for sinking of $61M navy ship: New Zealand defense minister

New Zealand's Defense Minister has clapped backmost astatine claims that the assignment of a pistillate skipper to commandeer a $61 cardinal navy vessel yet led to its sinking. 

The navy's specializer dive and hydrographic vessel, The Manawanui, sank on Sunday connected a reef disconnected the seashore of Samoa that it was surveying. Its 75 unit and passengers were ordered to wantonness the vas connected beingness rafts and were aboriginal rescued. The sinking marked New Zealand’s archetypal vessel mislaid since World War II and an probe has been launched into what led to its demise.

The incidental sparked statement online astir whether the captain, Commander Yvonne Gray, was hired, successful portion owed to her sex and sexuality successful accordance with diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) ideology.

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The HMNZS Manawanui pictured successful 2022. (Christopher Weissenbornnzdf via AP)

Judith Collins, who is New Zealand’s archetypal pistillate defence minister, rebuked specified claims and said determination is simply a "misogynistic narrative" surrounding the sinking. The origin of the sinking has yet to beryllium determined. 

"A court of inquiry has been stood up to found what caused this unspeakable incident. "The 1 happening that we already cognize did not [because] it is the sex of the ship's captain, a pistillate with 30 years' naval acquisition who connected the nighttime made the telephone to get her radical to safety," Collins said. 

She said she was appalled to spot the comments online from "armchair admirals, radical who volition ne'er person to marque decisions which mean beingness oregon decease for their subordinates."

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Lieutenant Commander Tala Mafile'o of the Royal Tongan Navy presents Commander Yvonne Gray, left, with a carved woody vessel arsenic a memento of the RNZN's information successful the 50th Anniversary Fleet Review. (New Zealand Defence Force via AP)

"I thought earnestly successful 2024 what the hellhole is going connected present with radical who are sitting determination successful their armchair operating a keyboard making comments astir radical that they bash not know, astir an country they bash not cognize and they are conscionable vile. Where's a spot of decency," Collins said.

She added women successful azygous were being abused successful the thoroughfare pursuing the incident.

"This is outrageous behaviour and New Zealand is not known for this and we are amended than it," she added. "We are each appointed connected merit, not gender," she added.

The vas mislaid powerfulness and ran aground connected Saturday evening 1 nautical mile disconnected the confederate seashore of the Samoan land of Upolu. By Sunday morning, the vas was "listing heavily," and fume was spotted astir 6:40 a.m., the navy said. By 9 a.m. the vessel slipped beneath the surface.

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Judith Collins, New Zealand’s defence minister, has rebuked claims that the assignment of a pistillate skipper to commandeer a $61 cardinal navy vessel yet led to its sinking.  (AP )

The sinking prompted fears of a large substance spill. On Thursday, officials successful Samoa said portion the vas was leaking lipid from 3 places, the magnitude was decreasing each time and was dissipating rapidly owed to beardown winds successful the area.

Passengers, including civilian scientists and overseas subject personnel, near the vas connected lifeboats successful "challenging conditions" and darkness, New Zealand’s Chief of Navy Rear Admiral Garin Golding told reporters aft the sinking.

The vas had been successful work for New Zealand since 2019, was 20 years aged and had antecedently belonged to Norway. The subject said the ship, purchased for $61 cardinal ($100 cardinal NZ dollars), was not covered by replacement insurance.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.