NEW ZEALAND Government Budget Papers have revealed the former dive support/oceanographic survey vessel HMNZS Manawanui is a NZD 77 million complete total loss.
Manawanui ran aground on a reef off the Samoan island of Upolu on 5 October last year, before catching fire and capsizing. All 75 passengers and crew were rescued. The NZ Defence Force and salvors have since been engaged in recovery and restitution activities, with the likelihood the wreck will remain in position.
While the vessel’s loss occurred while it was surveying the reef – an incident attributed by the Court of Inquiry to the failure by inadequately-trained crew to disengage the autpilot, amongst other issues – there has been little clarification of Manawanui’s role in security surrounding King Charles’ visit to the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Apia.
The budget papers also show NZD 32 million has been allocated in 2024-25, for the clean-up, salvage, and other remedial activities at the shipwreck. The vessel, which was acquired from the private sector in 2019 and modified for NZDF service, was insured for salvage operations but not for replacemement.
Earlier this month salvors completed work to retrieve important equipment, weapons, ammunition and some debris from in and around the sunken vessel. This followed the successful removal of diesel fuel, oil and other pollutants from the ship.
All the equipment, weapons and the ammunition has been returned to NZ on military flights, and much of the scrap metal debris has gone to be repurposed locally, the NZDF said.
The rest of the debris, along with tanktainers of unusable diesel fuel, pollutants, and oil mix will return to New Zealand on the salvors' barge for safe disposal
The NZDF has now published a series of documents about the sinking, including Manawanui port visits, the Manawanui log, the Manawanui port visits, Manawanui communications, Manawanui media strategy, Manawanui movements and crew, Manawanui salvage tender, and Manawanui social media. These can be viewed at Search Results - New Zealand Defence Force.
The final Court of Inquiry report, which underwent an independent external review by a King’s Counsel, can be found at nzdf.mil.nz/court-of-inquiry-hmnzs-manawanui