Resolution Rescue Party (WN08-0141-02)
05 November 2008
Hot on the heels of an earlier rescue mission involving a 53ft yacht which ran aground on a reef outside Nuku’alofa in mid October, personnel from the Navy’s hydrographic survey vessel, HMNZS RESOLUTION, again put their damage control skills to good use in making temporary repairs to another ship in distress. At 2:00 pm on Saturday 1 November RESOLUTION responded to a call for assistance from the merchant vessel Olovaha, a ferry used to maintain supply chains to the outer islands in the Kingdom of Tonga.
RESOLUTION was carrying out hydrographic survey work when its Commanding Officer answered a call for assistance from the vessel Olovaha which was taking on water as it headed from Vava’u to Nuku’alofa. Within an hour of hearing of the vessel’s plight, a team of Navy personnel were aboard the Olovaha armed with construction materials to ‘shore up’ several gaping holes in the bow of the vessel.
RESOLUTION’s Commanding Officer, Commander Murray Tuffin, and his ship’s company of 49 men and women have been surveying in the South Pacific for the past six weeks with the task of updating navigational charts, some of which are dated as far back as 1898. Commander Tuffin says, “The methods and expertise applied to the problem onboard Olovaha were skills taught to all naval personnel and exercised regularly on all naval vessels. Refined over decades of experience of warfare damage and lessons learnt from other nations, the damage control skills are equally applicable and important for civilian vessels”.
After applying temporary patches to ensure that the vessel was in no danger, the Olovaha was farewelled to continue onto Nuku’alofa with its precious cargo of supplies and people. Meanwhile RESOLUTION will continue surveying in the Kingdom of Tonga before proceeding to Samoa and the Cook Islands destination of Pukapuka. RESOLUTION is programmed to return to New Zealand in mid-December after completing three months of survey work.
ENDS
*There are currently 855 New Zealand Defence Force personnel are deployed on 14 operations, UN missions and defence exercises around the world.
For further information, please contact Lieutenant Commander Barbara Cassin, Navy Public Relations Manager 021 244 0638.