Endeavour tops up Nottingham's tanks

The crippled British warship HMS Nottingham has been taking on diesel fuel from HMNZS Endeavour as its crew works round the clock to control flooding.

The 3500-tonne guided-missile destroyer hit rocks at Lord Howe Island, 300 nautical miles east of the Australian coast on Sunday and began sinking by the bow.

The ship was eventually backed off the rocks and emergency work saved it but the hull was badly damaged and it is now unable to move from the relative protection of Lord Howe Island until the hull has been patched.

The tanker Endeavour arrived alongside the stricken Type 42 destroyer on Tuesday and the Anzac frigate HMNZS Te Mana arrived yesterday.

The British Ministry of Defence said the Endeavour had already pumped diesel onto Nottingham to keep the ship's generators going after its forward engine room and several other forward compartments were flooded after the grounding.

Endeavour also topped up Nottingham's fresh water supplies after its forward tanks were contaminated by salt water. The 253 crew members on Nottingham were also taking it in turns to transfer to Endeavour for hot showers.

The ministry said a top-level board of inquiry had begun into the grounding and board members were due to join the ship in the next few days.

Commander Richard Farrington, who took command of HMS Nottingham in September, 2000, would stay with the ship. The day after the grounding he said human error contributed to the grounding.

"It is quite the worst thing that has ever happened, quite the worst - character-building stuff.

"It was the worst feeling in the world," he said.

He said one compartment was flooded to a depth of 2m but was later pumped out to a few centimetres using pumps flown to Lord Howe Island by the Australian Air Force.

Commander Farrington said the biggest challenge was to keep the ship upright and some of the flooded compartments would not be pumped out.

"What I have got now is an interesting balance between emptying water out of some big compartments and risking my stability. In fact I need to keep some of the water in there."

The inquiry was expected to decide if Commander Farrington would face a court-martial.

The grounding put a large hole in the side and wiped off the underwater sonar dome on the outside of the hull, and the starboard stabiliser.

The Australian Air Force Hercules also brought in steel plate for temporary repairs to the destroyer's hull.

The ministry said a decision on what would happen to the destroyer had yet to be made.

The nearest major ports are Sydney or Brisbane, about 300 miles west of Lord Howe.

- NZPA