Board may be landed with 500-ton hulk

Press, 13 June 1978, Page 1

Board may be landed with 500-ton hulk

The Lyttelton Harbour Board may be landed with a 500-ton hulk which noone is prepared to take off its hands.

The burnt-out Tongan freighter Kemphaan is now firmly settled in the mud of Purau Bay and surveyors say she can be classed as “total constructional loss.” A smoky pall hung over Purau most of yesterday morning as fire crews damped down the last smouldering remains in the holds. By midday the ship had settled firmly on Purau’s soft, muddy bottom under the weight of water from the firemen’s hoses.

The charred remains of a Tongan seaman were removed from the burnt-out hulk by a squad of policemen soon after midday.

The body of Samisola Palu, aged 19, was found inside his locked cabin, but the police have declined to comment on the circumstances surrounding his death except to say that “inquiries were completed” and there were “no suspicious circumstances.”

However, it is believed that certain associated evidence was taken off the

ship for presentation at a Coroner’s Court.

The Kemphaan’s owner i (Mr P. Warner) arrived late yesterday by air from Tonga, and the complicated legal procedure has been set in motion to decide the vessel’s ultimate fate.

The Kemphaan is officially an “abandoned vessel” and has been taken over by the Receiver of Wrecks, with the Harbour Board appointed as the

agent of the Ministry of Transport. Informed sources say that the ship’s owner will try to get his underwriters to accept responsibility for the vessel and pay out on a total loss. If the underwriters agree, they have the option of disposing of her to recover some costs or abandoning her. However, the Kemphaan has no recoverable cargo, and her engine room, accommodation, and deck equipment have been vir-

tually destroyed; and so it is believed the underwriters will make no attempt to salvage her. Should the underwriters decline responsibility, the problem of her disposal fails entirely on the Harbour Board, which will have to recover costs directly from the owner.

The owner would then turn to his “protection and indemnity club” — a form of private insurance company — to cover the claims.

But whether the underwriters accept responsibility. the odds are that the Harbour Board will be left to dispose of the Kemphaan as best it can. Harbour Board spokesmen said yesterday that beaching the Kemphaan in Purau’s sheltered waters was considered the best means of handling the stricken ship. “We simply have to pump her out to float her off at high water,” said the Deputy Harbourmaster (Captain J. Partington). However, two special Harbour Board ground anchors have been added to ensure that the hulk does not move, her own anchors having been slipped when she was taken in tow.

The charred remnants of a bicycle, treadle sewing machine, and a stove lashed to the upper deck railing bore mute testimony to the Tongan crewmen’s penchant for buying second-hand furniture and appliances while in New Zealand.