Flaws abound on container ship, says Maritime Safety Authority

By PATRICK GOWER

A container ship being held in Auckland because of the crew's poor living conditions was yesterday found to still have 17 faults that were identified in November.

Problem areas on Golden Trader range from its lifeboats to its sanitary facilities.

The Maritime Safety Authority this week ordered the ship to house some of its crew ashore and not to leave port after an inspection found that the accommodation was substandard.

The authority found some of the seamen were sleeping on mattresses on concrete decks while the vessel was being refitted.

Captain Villy Raki, a spokesman for the Auckland company that manages the ship, Maritime Resource Management, has accused the authority of "victimisation".

He claimed that a rival shipping company was behind the complaint.

But authority director Russell Kilvington told the Herald yesterday that the ship had been found with 17 other deficiencies during a formal safety inspection in Whangarei in November.

"We found a number of faults related to the general condition of the vessel ... There are several things that they need to get right before they sail."

He would not reveal exactly what the deficiencies were but said they included the navigation, engine room, lifeboats, sanitary facilities and canvassed "a bit of everything".

The ship is laid up at present while it undergoes a refit and repairs.

It is due to sail on February 1, but Mr Kilvington said it would first undergo another thorough review of both the existing deficiencies and the living conditions.

"If they call it victimisation, then I call it just doing our job."

Mr Kilvington said Mr Raki's claims of anti-competitive behaviour were a "gross overreaction".

"Of course the shipping industry is competitive.

"But the reality here is we got a complaint from a chaplain on behalf of crew and we took that in good faith."

The authority boarded the ship Wednesday afternoon after a complaint from the Rev Bill Law of the Seafarers Mission on behalf of the mainly Filipino crew.

Mr Raki said he had already successfully challenged some of the 17 deficiencies and the others would be repaired before the ship and its 35 crew sailed again.

He said investigations had found the complaint originated from one disgruntled Filipino crewman, who had recently been very seasick. He said the men were happy to sleep on the mattresses on the floor, and New Zealanders did not realise that Asians and Filipinos found this comfortable.

Mr Raki said anti-competitive behaviour was common on the Auckland waterfront.

Companies would use the authority or unions to cause embarrassment or harm to rivals.

"The authority should focus their efforts on all the rustbuckets in New Zealand's harbours and fly-by-night operators, not reputable companies like us."

The secretary of the Seafarers Union, Gary Parsloe, said the ship was being held because it had breached International Labour Organisation conventions, not because of industrial sabotage.

He said it was unlikely that other companies would have complained, because it highlighted the way the industry treated international staff, something they would not want in the public eye.

"The authority holds up very few ships a year. Irrespective of what [Raki] is saying, he is in breach of the regulations.

"People have to realise that it takes a lot of guts for these Filipino guys to stand up because they are putting their livelihood on the line."

nzherald.co.nz/marine