New Zealand minister criticizes trolling of captain of sunken ship

New Zealand’s defense minister has criticized “armchair admirals” for suggesting that the captain’s gender was to blame for the sinking of one of the country’s navy ships.

The HMNZS Manawanui ran aground one nautical mile off the Samoan island of Upolu on Saturday night while inspecting a reef. Later caught fire and turned.

All 75 people on board were evacuated to lifeboats and rescued on Sunday morning, the New Zealand Defense Force said in a statement.

Authorities are now investigating the cause of the incident and assessing the possible environmental damage from the wreckage.

“A court of inquiry has been established to establish what caused this terrible incident,” said Judith Collins, New Zealand’s first female defense minister.

“The only thing we already know that didn’t cause this is the gender of the ship’s captain.”

Collins said she was shocked to see online trolling from “armchair admirals, people who will never have to make decisions that mean life or death for their subordinates.”

She added: “I seriously thought in 2024 what the hell is going on here with people who are sitting in their armchairs operating a keyboard making comments about people they don’t know, about an area they don’t know about and they are just vile. Where is a little decency.

Collins said women in uniform had been abused on the streets in recent days.

“This is outrageous behavior and New Zealand is not known for this and we are better than this.”

HMNZS Manawanui is the first ship the New Zealand Navy has lost at sea since the Second World War.

Collins previously indicated it was in an area that had not been surveyed since 1987 during adverse weather conditions.

On Thursday morning, the Samoa Marine Pollution Advisory Committee (MPAC) said the ship was “leaking oil from three separate locations” but that there continued to be “no trace” of oil reaching the shore.

Samoan officials said they believe most of the ship’s fuel was burned during the onboard fire and that oil at sea was observed dissipating quickly.

The New Zealand Defense Force said a Navy team had been created “to respond to any contamination of local beaches and to remove debris that has started to wash ashore”.

It added that divers from Samoa’s Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment also “observed damage to the reef where the collision occurred.”

New Zealand has a long history of gender equality and was the first country to grant women the right to vote.

But the country’s most recent prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, received frequent misogynistic abuse during his term in office – a topic frequently debated in the country’s media.

Around 20% of uniformed personnel in the New Zealand Defense Force are women.