Harbourmaster Denies Petrol Spill Report

Press, Volume C, Issue 29691, 8 December 1961, Page 18

Harbourmaster Denies Petrol Spill Report

(New Zealand Press Association)

NEW PLYMOUTH, Dec. 7. The New Plymouth Harbourmaster, Captain J. Flett, today denied a report that hundreds of gallons of petrol had spilled from the Swedish tanker. Bet Mare, into the harbour as the tanker prepared to leave the port. Captain Flett said the tanker was certified as being empty of petrol at 4 p.m. yesterday by an oil company representative. The tanker then started taking on 6000 tons ballast. In ballasting, tanks were filled with water, to within a foot of the top. Captain Flett said that as the tanker was leaving her berth at Newton King wharf at 10.35 p.m., he noticed a oath of red scum floating on the water. The tanker was then still taking ballast. Captain Flett said he immediately realised that a ballast tank had been allowed to overflow and the scum had come from the side of the tank. Because it was dark and he could not see how much scum had flowed into the harbour, Captain Flett ordered that emergency precautions be taken. The port watchman was ordered to prohibit naked lights on the wharf and a warning was issued to officers and crew of the 15.187-ton Shaw Savill liner, Athenic which was berthed on the opposite side of the wharf, not to throw cigarette butts or matches into the sea. During the night the watchman kept guard at the entrance to the wharf and warned persons entering it to extinguish naked lights.

At daybreak the watchman found no trace of the scum and he immediately got in touch with Captain Flett, who lifted precautions. Captain Flett said it was “sheer carelessness” on the part of the tanker’s crew to have let the ballast tank overflow. “There is always a big smell of petrol from a tanker especially when the tanker has been emptied,” he said. “Last night’s smell was nothing out of the ordinary.” The tanker sailed for Kurnell, Australia.