Face of the Day

The HMNZS Manawanui sank this morning after running aground on a reef near the southern coast of Upolu in Samoa last night and catching fire, according to a New Zealander on the shore.

“It’s gone,” Dave Poole told the Herald.

Poole, who is on a seven-day holiday in Samoa with his wife Kara, saw the news about the ship on social media platform X ( formerly Twitter) about 3.30am and drove 30 minutes from the capital Apia to the coastline this morning to watch the stricken ship one nautical mile offshore, where he met local police officers.

“When we got there, it wasn’t on fire. We watched the fire take hold and the whole infrastructure was burning pretty brightly. You could see it was listed over the port side, and then it just went down and [was] gone,” he said.

Poole, who took a series of photos showing the last moments of the Manawanui, said the ship sunk about 8.45am. [...]

HMNZS Manawanui, which sailed out of Devonport Naval Base in Auckland last Saturday, has a core crew of 39 but bunks for 66, according to the NZDF website.

Commanded by Commander Yvonne Gray, it was built in 2003 and had been in service with the Royal New Zealand Navy since 2019. Its home port is Gisborne.

NZ Herald