'Significant' corrosion found on cruise ship

11.45am

Significant corrosion has been found on a cruise liner that turned back to Auckland during mid-voyage, maritime safety inspectors said today.

The 46,000-tonne Pacific Sky made a U-turn on Thursday night when it was halfway to Tonga and was taking water.

The steamship, which operator P&O Cruises said had a crack repaired before it left Auckland on Wednesday, arrived back in Auckland on Saturday morning with its 1470 passengers and 600 crew.

The Maritime Safety Authority has detained the 19-year-old Pacific Sky while it satisfies itself that the ship is seaworthy.

MSA director Russell Kilvington said the corrosion was in the same area as a water escape duct where the original crack was discovered.

"We have no knowledge of corrosion anywhere else, although this alone is fairly serious," he said.

"Today, we are looking further at this possible one-off problem. If it is one-off, we will need to understand why it has occurred."

Mr Kilvington said Lloyd's, the classification society that issued the Pacific Sky with its certification, and the MSA would be inspecting more of the 16 to 18 ducts on the vessel.

"Basically we have to attest to the overall watertightness of the ship, but I stress at this moment there is one localised problem," he said.

"It's just that this localised problem is now pretty significant."

With the vessel rescheduled to depart Auckland this weekend, all parties were aware of passenger interest in the timetable for inspection and repairs, Mr Kilvington said.

"We will be talking to the operator to get a handle as quickly as possible about returning this ship to service on Saturday," he said.

"At the moment, we are not saying yes or no. We are still in the finding out stage and we have considerable resources deployed on all sides."

Mr Kilvington said the ducts came into play only in an emergency.

"If the ship had a collision and part of it was broached and you had water coming in, these ducts ensure that any water that got on to the deck was quickly rushed down and away," he said.

"Water moving around high on the ship will quickly tip it over."

All passengers on the cruise were given a full refund on their return to Auckland on Saturday and have been offered a 25 per cent discount on any future Pacific Sky cruise departing before December 1 next year.

Pacific Sky is one of two Australia-based ships operated by P&O Cruises. The other is the 4-year-old 30,000-ton Pacific Princess.

- NZPA, Herald Staff

Further reading: nzherald.co.nz/marine