- As Sunken Australian warship HMAS Perth is ransacked by illegal scavengers
The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) has banned the Papua New Guinea-flagged cargo ship Kiunga Chief from entering or using Australian ports for three months.
The move comes after the 6,200 dwt ship was detained for a third time in less than 18 months due to the failure of its operators to “safely and effectively manage” the operations of the vessel.
AMSA issued an official direction banning Kiunga Chief from Australian ports to the master in the Port of Brisbane on June 5.
The 1999-built ship has now gone to an anchorage within the port to undergo an inspection by its class society before it continues its voyage.
As informed, the three-month-ban will take effect once the vessel leaves the port.
Kiunga Chief has been issued a total of 79 deficiencies between August 14, 2015, and May 29, 2017, according to AMSA.
These deficiencies include, but are not limited to, failure to maintain critical equipment such as the ship’s engines and fire extinguishing systems, inadequate food provisions, unsanitary living conditions including defective toilets and water leakage into cabins, inadequate training for crew and evidence of crew exceeding 72 hours of work in seven days and being underpaid, AMSA said.
“These are serious and systemic failures on behalf of the ship’s operator which have placed the safety and wellbeing of the crew and the health of Australia’s marine environment at risk,” Stephen Curry, AMSA’s Acting General Manager of Operations, pointed out.
“Despite numerous opportunities for improvement, the operator of Kiunga Chief has consistently failed to provide a safe workplace for crew or meet minimum applicable standards, and as such, this ship is unwelcome in Australian waters. Let this be a reminder that sub-standard ships will not be tolerated in Australia,” Curry concluded.
The general cargo vessel is owned by Papua New Guinea-based Consort Express Lines, VesselsValue’s data shows.
In the meantime, one of Australia’s most treasured second world war warships has been illegally salvaged for metal, devastating the war grave of more than 300 sailors, maritime archaeologists say.
An Australian-Indonesian expedition conducted a dive on the wreck of HMAS Perth, which sank in 1942 following a fierce battle against the Japanese navy off the north-west tip of Java.
Kevin Sumption, the director of the Australian National Maritime Museum, said: “It is with profound regret we advise that our joint maritime archaeologist diving team has discovered sections of the Perth missing. Interim reports indicate only approximately 40% of the vessel remaining.
“The research team has found evidence of large-scale salvage on the site, including what appears to be recent removal of material from the wreck,” he added.
The dive was the first detailed survey of the ship since 2013, when scuba divers reported recent damage to the wreck as well as sightings of a salvage barge with a large crane on board floating above the site.
HMAS Perth, a light cruiser, is the latest of dozens of second world war-era ships to be confirmed as having been illegally salvaged during the past few years.
Frank McGovern, 97, was a gunner during the battle that sank HMAS Perth. After the third torpedo hit and he had run out of ammunition, McGovern heard the order to abandon ship. “I just went over the side, the rescue boats were full of shrapnel,” he told the Guardian. “My brother worked in the engine room. His action station was down there. He didn’t make it out.”
After several hours in the water, McGovern and others found a lifeboat and attempted to reach the Java shoreline but were intercepted by the Japanese. He spent the next three and a half years as a prisoner of war.
“It comes at some sort of a shock to know it’s not a war grave,” he said. “Only two of us are left out of the 682 on board.
“We have learned through the years that quite some damage had been done to the superstructure. We hoping now that through negotiations with the Indonesian authorities something might be done about it.”
Crews seeking to sell scrap steel and other metals estimated to be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars have left few sunken vessels intact in the South China Sea.
The Guardian revealed in November that the wrecks of three British ships and a US submarine that sank during the war had been nearly completely destroyed. In February, divers in Malaysia sent photos to the Guardian showing the destruction of three Japanese ships that sank off the coast of Borneo during the 1944 Pacific War.
The commercial salvaging of war wrecks, often using explosives, has upset veterans, historians and politicians, who want to preserve the final resting place of sailors who went down with their ships.
The illicit business has targeted scores of vessels sailed by Dutch, British, American and Australian servicemen that were overpowered by Japanese forces during battles in the Java Sea. Those battles led to the Japanese occupation of the entire Dutch East Indies.
World Maritime News with additional report from Guardian
