Many of liner’s lifeboats rotten, says lieutenant

Press, 19 February 1986, Page 2

Many of liner’s lifeboats rotten, says lieutenant

PA Wellington Many of the passengers in the Mikhail Lermontov would have died if the Soviet liner had sunk in the open sea because of “dangerously faulty” lifesaving equipment, a Royal New Zealand Navy officer said yesterday. Lieutenant Peter Batcheler, captain of the naval patrol vessel Taupo, which has been watching the area of the wreck in Port Gore, said there should be an inquiry into the Mikhail Lermontov’s equipment. Many of the lifeboats were so rotten that people were putting their feet through the bottoms, he said. , Many of the rubber inflatable liferafts his vessel picked up would not open. Those that did were leaking so badly that by the morning they were sinking. Lieutenant Batcheler said lights on half the lifejackets picked up would not work, and the whistles were like “toys” and could not be heard from a distance. He said the Tapuo

picked up one Australian survivor in the water who would have died in another 15 minutes. He was seen only when he finally managed to get his light to work. Lieutenant Batcheler said the motors on some of the lifeboats did not work. On the night, the Russian crew boarded their motor launches and left the passengers stranded in their immobile lifeboats, he said. The crew went back for them only when told to by rescue workers. “There were no instructions on any pieces of equipment written in English,” said Lieutenant Batcheler. “If it (the sinking) was out at sea they would not have got back alive with that equipment — I am quite convinced of that. I picked up an emergency flare and I did not have a clue how to use it.” He heard from survivors that at no stage during the drama was an emergency system activated. Passengers had had to realise for themselves that something was

going wrong. Lieutenant Batcheler is in charge of the wreck until a receiver of wrecks arrives. He has the power to arrest anyone trying to dive on the wreck without permission and has two policemen aboard the Taupo to help enforce the Seamen and Shipping Act. Police divers attached a line on Monday to the top of the ship just over 10m below the water’s surface. The bow of the ship is facing south to the beach where she tried to come aground and she is lying port side up with the hole thought to be on the starboard side. Lieutenant Batcheler said the greatest problem now was the 750 tonnes of diesel and 350 tonnes of heavy oil still in the ship. Most of the diesel would probably evaporate, but the heavy oil could cause problems if it leaked. Some of the diesel had already drifted on to the southern shores of Port Gore and left a black mark about two metres wide. Many of the jellyfish in the area had been killed.