| Forum Home | ||||
| PC World Chat | ||||
| Thread ID: 88615 | 2008-04-02 18:30:00 | Wahine disaster - needless deaths? | Strommer (42) | PC World Chat |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 655267 | 2008-04-02 23:49:00 | I was living in Wellington at the time (got sent home from school about 10AM - very exciting). The winds were HUGE. I couldn't even walk down the street, we all had to be picked up in cars. All sorts of loose stuff getting blown around - very dangerous in hindsight. It's not surprising that the emergency services weren't up to the task - they had experienced nothing of the kind before and were already busy trying to save lives and property on land. I saw in the doco that a local boat club asked its members to assist - these days the Coast Guard / emergency services would insist that no private boats render assistance (unless they were already out in the storm), for fear of the rescuers needing rescuing, putting more lives at risk. Everyone was just lucky that it was a southerly and not a northerly - otherwise they would have been blown back into Cook Strait and then who knows where!!! Some were geting dragged that way when the tide turned... Scary. |
johcar (6283) | ||
| 655268 | 2008-04-03 00:48:00 | Do you know when it went down? I know it was still semi-afloat the next morning, when the seas had calmed down . It went down while there were still life boats and people in the water nearby . The reason it did not sink was it was grounded . It would not have been a pleasnat place to be had people remained on board and the captain did the correct thing in abandoning ship as he would have had no reason to believe that the ship would a) remain in one place in such high winds and seas and b) not break up in such high seas . What the captain, his crew and passengers could have expected is a better coordinated and directed rescue effort . For e . g . It stands to reason that a proportion of the people and life boats would have been driven towards the east coast of the harbour and the danger that rugged section of coast would resent in that event . Instead, belatedly, they popped a couple of blokes over to have a look, in their street clothes and sans any rescue, medical or even palliative equipment like blankets and food . All very well in hindsight, but some of the errors were pretty fundamental and should never have happened . The first, even though the forecasts weren't great, was setting sail when there were >260 kph winds in the offing . Perhaps should be laid at the feet of the Met service rather than Railways . Twas a very exiting couple of days to be a resident of Welly . No school for about a week IIRC . :thumbs: |
Murray P (44) | ||
| 655269 | 2008-04-03 01:54:00 | Another thing that was confusing was that the captain and crew were asking the passengers to go to the life boats on the starboard side. What they should of done was ask them to go to the lower or upper side. :) |
Trev (427) | ||
| 655270 | 2008-04-03 02:52:00 | I have blogged my personal account of the Wahine disater. If you want to read it go here. www.dotswotnots.blogspot.com | lakewoodlady (103) | ||
| 655271 | 2008-04-03 02:52:00 | Do you know when it went down? I know it was still semi-afloat the next morning, when the seas had calmed down. I lived in Wellington at the time of this event and still remember it vividly today. The Wahine sank (rolled onto its side) at around 3pm. It was never afloat from this point since it was now lying in its side on the sea bed. The issue as to why/how it got into the situation was well covered in the documentary with the main issues being that the storm intensified just as she was entering the approaches to Wellington harbour, she was travelling too fast with a behind swell driving her forward, the engine power was reduced to control the forward speed resulting in the master losing control of her, the loss of radar and visibility, the wind blowing her onto Barrett's reef and the subsequent holing of her and the final blow being the flow of water onto the vehicle deck resulting in the destabilising of the vessel. As far as I remember, all passengers & crew vacated the ship while she was still afloat and listing. Most of the 51 passengers who died did so on the Pencarrow side of the harbour by being bashed against the rocks or subsequent exposure as a result of little rescue assistance. A number of passengers also died as a result of evacuating the ship and breaking their neck when they jumped into the water as a result of the life jacket not being securely held as they entered the water. I think this was identified in the subsequent inquiry which lead to the review of life jacket standards etc. |
Cptn Hotshot (3904) | ||
| 655272 | 2008-04-03 04:40:00 | BTW, apparently many of the lives lost were due to inadequate emergency services on the part of the coast opposite Seatoun . I gather that a big part of the problem was the emergency services came running to westen side of the harbour where the ship was but a large number of survivers washed up on the east side, 40 minutes drive away . and many who washed up on the east side where dead before the emergency services arrived . |
robsonde (120) | ||
| 655273 | 2008-04-05 01:31:00 | I was working in the Wellington Harbour Board then, and I was out in that storm trying to tie down and stop all the cranes sailing down the wharves and crashing into each other (didnt help, they went anyway), I was in Pipitea Wharf shed at the height of the storm, I still remember the screaming of the wind, and watching the roofing iron rip away, from inside the shed, and sailing over the rail yard to smash into the hill, then the cranes coming loose and running at speed past the dockways to smash together at the northern end and the jibs came through the roof, have to admit I was afraid. We were fortunate that the toll of life wasnt higher, probably due to the fact that Wellingtonians are experienced at surviving nasty weather ;). |
feersumendjinn (64) | ||
| 1 2 | |||||