On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the sinking of the RoRo ferry ‘TEV Wahine’, New Zealand’s worst maritime disaster in modern times, Maritime NZ shared what has changed with respect to safety.
On 10 April 1968, the ship was caught in a storm due to Tropical Cyclone Giselle, run aground on Barrett Reef, capsized and sank in the shallow waters near Steeple Rock at the mouth of Wellington Harbour. Of the 734 people onboard, 53 lost their lives.
Maritime NZ Acting Director, Stephanie Winson, said the tragedy helped change international maritime safety conventions and standards.
Ships in New Zealand, including our Cook Strait ferries, coastal traders and the many overseas ships that visit our country are all safer, in part, because of what happened to the Wahine…Lessons from a maritime disaster like the sinking of the Wahine can go on to save lives around the world.
As explained, since 1968, there have been many changes including in how ships are designed and operated, crew training, and how New Zealand is organised to respond to a maritime disaster.
- Ship design and construction has changed to make vessels more stable, stronger and able to survive more damage if there is an incident.
- Before a ship can sail, its voyage planning must now include specific alternatives for what the ship will do if it cannot continue as expected, for emergencies and what steps to take if something unexpected happens.
- The ISM Code guides national maritime laws, including New Zealand’s requirements for rolling audits of operating systems, surveys of ships, and the need for continuous safety management at all times on board.
- New technologies provide crews with much more information about the ship, its cargo, other vessels, the weather and other data, much faster.
- Planned “bridge resource management” systems have been introduced to manage the multiple streams of information coming onto a ship’s bridge, crew roles, changing priorities, shift changes, and to guide decision making in what can be a quickly changing environment.
Maritime NZ now provides the Rescue Coordination Centre NZ (RCCNZ) and the Maritime Radio Service. RCCNZ coordinates response to all distress beacon alerts and major search and rescue operations in New Zealand’s search and rescue region. The Maritime Radio Service operates the national maritime radio operations centre. Both operate round-the-clock and are located next to each other in Lower Hutt.
In 1968, New Zealand did not have national operations centres to coordinate a maritime response and maritime radio communications.
We cannot create a “zero risk” maritime industry. By their nature, the sea and weather are changeable and powerful and will always pose at least some risk to shipping. However, what we can do, and are doing, as part of our global maritime system is reduce risk by building better ships, developing better ways of operating ships and managing crews, improving training, and having well-coordinated response when there is an emergency.
