A Twenty-First-Century Shipwreck

Re:A Twenty-First-Century Shipwreck by veb on Thursday December 11, 2014 @03:17AM (#8733746)

New Zealand's worst maritime disaster[1] was caused by a container ship that hit a reef just off the coast - because the captain / navigator were stressed for getting to port on time and therefore took a different route (a more direct one) which made them collide with the reef.

The container ship was carrying oil which spilled into the water causing a lot of distress. Very small "disaster" compared to others in the world like it, but nevertheless, a really stupid human error which led to the shipwrecking.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rena_oil_spill

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Re:A Twenty-First-Century Shipwreck by jzwinck on Thursday December 11, 2014 @03:30AM (#8733793)

Wikipedia says Rena was New Zealand's worst maritime environmental disaster. Its overall worst maritime disaster was of course the 2013 America's Cup: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_America%27s_Cup

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Re:A Twenty-First-Century Shipwreck by aidos on Thursday December 11, 2014 @07:25AM (#8734345)

Still too soon, too raw! :) Hopefully the Brits get a team in next time around so I have 2 teams in the running.

The Wahine, while not the worst maritime disaster NZ has ever had is one of the more recent [0].

This video [1] showing a ferry bouncing along gives you a good idea of how rough it can get on the route between Wellington and Picton. I had friends on there one day when several people were hospitalised with broken bones!

[0] http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/culture/wahine-disaster [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUWascqCBe0

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