Decommissioned Royal New Zealand Navy Manawanui will soon be conserving pacific maritime heritage
More than 75 years after the Second World War, decommissioned Royal New Zealand Navy (RNZN) dive tender Manawanui will soon be fighting environmental hazards at key sites across the southern Pacific.
Manawanui was decommissioned from the RNZN in February. She was bought by the parent company of Major Projects Group, an Australian company that intends to use her for research, education and the prevention of potential oil spill damage that will be catastrophic to Pacific island states’ economies.
The foundation will use the ship to do research into slowing the corrosion of shipwrecks to determine out how much bunker oil remains. Its mission is to preserve maritime heritage, protect dive sties that generate national income and circumvent potentially catastrophic oil spills.
Key to the foundation’s work will be ships sunk in Second World War battles across the Pacific. Some of them are leaking oil, 75 years after the war that raged across the Pacific.
After 30 years of proud service, former HMNZS Manawanui has been handed over to her new owners at HMNZS Philomel, the Devonport Naval Base. Former Commanding Officer Lieutenant Commander Muzz Kennett handed the ship over to Major Projects Foundation’s Paul Adams and new ship’s master Bill Fenelon.
Renamed MV Recovery, she will be sailed to Australia in mid-July by Australian volunteers for a refit. She will then spend several months on shakedown research missions off the Australian east coast before heading into the Pacific to work on maritime and environmental conservation efforts.
