A former Royal Navy officer will be court martialed after a New Zealand ship she was commanding hit a reef and sank after the crew failed to turn the autopilot off.
Commander Yvonne Gray, a former Royal Navy warfare officer, was commanding the HMNZS Manawanui when it hit the reef off Samoa on October 5 2024.
The ship was the Royal New Zealand Navy’s specialist dive and hydrographic vessel and had been carrying out a reef survey near the Somoan island of Upolu.
It ran aground and caught fire before capsising.
Lieutenant Commander Matthew Gajzago and a third person will also face a court martial.
Cdr Gray, who served in the Royal Navy for almost 20 years, faces charges including that she was absent from the ship’s bridge while within a nautical mile (1.8km) of a reef.
She also faces a charge of failing to manage the risks of conducting hydrographic work in uncharted waters close to reefs.
Cdr Gray faces a maximum of two years’ imprisonment if convicted.
Her barrister Todd Simmonds said she had ‘endured a lot of unjustified criticism’ over the ship’s sinking and his client denied the charges.
Cdr Gray is originally from Harrogate, north Yorkshire, and moved to New Zealand with her wife in 2012 before joining the country’s Navy.
She took command of the Manawanui, her first such role, in December 2022.
A military court of inquiry found human error caused the ship to sink, with senior crew failing to notice autopilot was on as they struggled to control a thruster and stop it running aground.
Some 75 crew left the ship in lifeboats and were rescued despite tough currents and winds pushing them towards the reefs.
No one was ‘heavily injured’ and no lives were lost according to the Samoa Fire and Emergency Services Authority.
Two crew members were later hospitalised, with one suffering a dislocated shoulder and the other a back injury.
Another 12 crew suffered minor cuts and soreness.
The 85-metre ship had cost the Kiwi government NZ$103million (£45.6million) to buy, modify and introduce.
Built in 2003, it was known as the MV Edda Fonn and was bought by New Zealand from Norwegian company Østensjø Rederi and delivered in May 2019.
It was New Zealand’s first ship to be lost to the sea since the Second World War and the first to be lost in peacetime.
The ship’s wreckage is still on sea floor near Upolu, Samoa.
