Author(s): Tom O'Connor

Nautical

Tom O'Connor's study of the loss of this massive cruise liner in 1986 in constricted waters in Queen Charlotte Sound, (at the northern tip of New Zealand's South Island), examines all; the events leading up to the ship's grounding, its eventual loss, the rush to evacuate the more then 400 passengers and 300+ crew members in a hazardous and much delayed night-time rescue. Fortunately there was only fatality, one of the ship's refrigeration engineers, who was below decks close to where the ship first struck rocks. As a journalist working in the area where the Mikhail Lermontov was lost the author was familiiar with the sequence of events, had good contacts and the decision to produce the book had its catalyst in his news coverage of the saga. The result is a well-rounded, comprehensive and factual account of all aspects, with the rescue effort (delayed by the reluctance by the master of the Mikhail Lermontov to act) particularly graphic and including interviews with a number of passengers, many from Australia and well as New Zealanders - the ship was bound for Sydney with a planned visit to Milford Sound. Formal inquiries into the loss of the vessel failed to establish why the pilot at the time, a competant master mariner and harbourmaster at Picton, where the ship had been berthed that day, should attempt to navigate the huge ship through a narrow channel. This was remarkable in view of his expert knowlege of the Sound. and its hazards. In the backround is the sub-plot of the difficulties being experienced in the Marlborough Harbour Board of which the harbour master was then the board's acting chief executive. Tom O'Connor has woven a fascinating account of New Zealand's most sensational maritime accident. He asked all the right questions about the wreck, explored all the conspiracy theories, but was unable to solve the mystery of "Why? the Mikhail Lermontov was directed into such tight and treacherous waters...