New Zealand state-owned ferry operator KiwiRail says its ropax that ran aground near the port of Picton on New Zealand’s South Island late on Friday night suffered no hull breaches and minimal damage despite spending 24 hours on an inhospitable coastline.
The grounding of the 17,800-gt ferry Aratere (built 1998) occurred shortly after the vessel departed Picton at 19:45 local time on Friday night.
The ferry was refloated on the high tide of Saturday night by KiwiRail, which was supported by what it described as a team of global experts.
The Aratere subsequently returned to Picton, where it is undergoing inspections by state regulator Maritime NZ and class society DNV.
Government officials stressed that there were no signs of any significant damage to the ship, nor any pollution. No injuries were reported, although eight commercial truck drivers and 39 crew were forced to spend a night on board the grounded ship.
The grounding of a ship that departed port in calm weather under good visibility conditions has led to many maritime pundits questioning whether the incident was caused by a failure of the Aratere’s steering gear.
The ship had recently been fitted with what the ferry operator described as a new “state-of-the-art” steering system.
New Zealand transport minister Simeon Brown told local media there were questions about how a recently installed piece of equipment on Aretere had responded.
“It is my understanding that they lost the ability to steer the ship,” Brown said.
KiwiRail executives refused to speculate on the cause of the grounding at a press conference held shortly after the ship was refloated.
Steering gear failures are believed to have caused two other recent major maritime casualties involving ships manoeuvring near ports.
Grace Ocean’s 9,962-teu container ship Dali (built 2015) destroyed a bridge in the US port of Baltimore after allegedly losing both power and steering. The ship destroyed a support pillar of the Francis Scott Key Bridge, causing the whole structure to collapse into the Patapsco River, blocking the entrance to the port and killing several workers on the bridge.
The loss of steering is also thought to have caused a Dutch dredger to hit a stationary bunker tanker in Singapore on 14 June.
The 29,900-gt trailing suction hopper dredger Vox Maxima (built 2009) struck the stationary 9,000-dwt bunker tanker Marine Honour (built 2007), ripping open a cargo tank that spilt a significant quantity of oil, much of which ended up on Singapore’s most popular beaches.
