Bagpipes final salute to old warship

By DANIEL JACKSON

The skirl of bagpipes drifted across the waters near Tutukaka on Saturday as a Navy piper farewelled a long-serving comrade.

Thousands of people watched from boats and the cliffs of the shoreline as the former Navy frigate Waikato took just two minutes and 40 seconds to disappear from view in 28m-deep water, after 13 charges of high explosives sent the stripped-out hulk to the bottom.

The Tutukaka Coast Promotions Society hopes the 113m-long ship will become an artificial reef and, combined with the former Navy ship Tui - scuttled nearby last year - and the proximity of the Poor Knights Marine Reserve, attract up to 20,000 divers and visitors to the area a year.

That was the last thing on the minds of the collection of officers, former sailors and their families who listened to Chief Petty Officer Dave Gordon play Highland Cathedral on the pipes while they watched from a nearby charter boat as the Waikato went down.

None of them cheered at the end, as the old warship represented something special in each of their lives.

Greg and Nancy Thompson can thank the Waikato for its part in their marriage, which has lasted more than 30 years.

Mr Thompson was one of the crew given the task of bringing the ship back from Belfast to its home port of Tauranga after it was commissioned for the New Zealand Navy in 1966.

At the time, Mrs Thompson was staying in Tauranga while on holiday from Australia and was invited next door by a woman who wanted the young Aussie girl to meet her dashing son who served in the Navy.

"I couldn't resist, I just loved a man in uniform," Mrs Thompson said.

The Waikato was to prove an enduring part of their lives as their son, also named Greg, served on her during his time in the Navy.

A maiden crew member and later a captain of the Waikato, John Tobin, said he did not feel sad to see the ship go down.

"You've got to remember that it's the people that make a ship what it is. Take away the people and it's only 1800 tonnes of steel."

Phil (Lucky) Barlow was sporting a special shirt with the Waikato's emblem on his chest and the dates of the ship commission, decommission and sinking.

He was proud to have sailed on her and to see her sink for a good purpose.

"It feels like I've come the whole circle," he said.

By yesterday, divers had inspected the ship and reported that it had come to rest upright, with only a slight list to port. Fish life was already moving in.

Malcolm Pullman, spokesman for the Tutukaka Coast Promotions Society, said the group was extremely pleased with the sinking, which had taken over a year of effort and cost $250,000.

The ship had been cleaned of pollutants before the sinking, and had passed a Northland Regional Council inspection.

The promotions society had sought a $40,000 loan from the Whangarei District Council to cover outstanding expenses, but Mr Pullman said the group was confident of repaying it with a levy of $5 a head on divers using the wreck through charter companies.

Also present at the sinking was the Wellington group Sink F69, which has its sights firmly set on acquiring the former Navy frigate Wellington and scuttling her off the coast of Houghton Bay.

The group's president, Marco Zeeman, estimated that a frigate scuttled as an artificial reef was worth at least $2 million a year to a local economy.

"That," he said, "has got to be better than scrapping them."