New Zealand’s defence minister has blasted “armchair admirals” for suggesting that a female captain’s gender was to blame after a $100million naval ship sank under her command.
HMNZS Manawanui, a specialist dive and hydrographic vessel, ran aground close to the Samoan island of Upolu on Saturday.
All 75 people on board were evacuated onto lifeboats and hauled to safety in rough seas by rescuers early on Sunday, the nation’s Defence Force said.
Officials launched an investigation into the first ship its Navy has lost to the sea since World War Two, while assessing the wreck’s potential contamination of local beaches.
Online trolls targeted Commander Yvonne Gray who has been in charge of HMS Manawanui, which is Maori for “steadfast” or “big heart”, since 2022.
Critics accused the officer of being appointed to the role due to her gender rather than her qualifications.
Author John McLean waded into the row, claiming HMS Manawanui’s sinking “raises the issue of whether the Navy is over-promoting women beyond their capacity in order to meet gender and sexual orientation goals”.
Cmdr Gray, originally from Yorkshire, moved to New Zealand in 2012 with her wife Sharon after falling in love with the country during a campervan holiday.
Judith Collins, New Zealand’s first female defence minister, said: “A court of inquiry has been stood up to establish what caused this terrible incident.
“The one thing that we already know did not cause it is the gender of the ship's captain.”
Collins said she was appalled to see online trolling from “armchair admirals, people who will never have to make decisions which mean life or death for their subordinates”.
She added: “I thought seriously in 2024 what the hell is going on here with people who are sitting there in their armchair operating a keyboard making comments about people that they do not know, about an area they do not know and they are just vile. Where's a bit of decency?”
In a statement, Cmdr Gray said the sinking was her “very worst imagining became a reality”, adding the crew responded “with commitment, with comradeship and, above all, with courage”.
