Not quite sure how this one came about, but many moons ago, "Mamaku" found herself high and dry on a sandbank in the Manukau for the best part of a day. At least they could be certain there was no propeller damage before she was refloated! Crewman Ben Gibbs took this picture, and it appeared in the Nelson Evening Mail.
	Not to be outdone by her fellow Anchor vessel, "Titoki" got up to some hi-jinks one foggy evening in 1959 on her way back to Nelson, which entailed an unscheduled stop at Blockhouse Bay! Local resident Brian recalls the event on www.blockhousebayhistoricalsociety.com, and you can read it here. It wasn't "Titoki"'s lone let-off, her biggest one coming on 1 September 1975 at the Grey River harbour entrance, about which, more here.
	This photo of the stern of "Guardian Carrier" was provided by Stephen Reed - a clipping from the Christchurch Star in the mid-1960s. The narrative accompanying it read: "The Guardian Carrier, loaded with 1500 tonnes of cement from Westport, smashed stern-on into the Mangere Bridge about 8am today, cracking concrete pillars and metal railings and smashing a water pipe along the bridge. The hull of the 1539-ton ship was dented just below porthole level, throwing crew quarters into a shambles. No one was injured. The ship was turning across the strong wind and tide making for her normal berth at the bridge end of Onehunga Wharf".
	Eating my lunch one Saturday, I looked out the window and saw a ship coming in. Nothing unusual in that, save for one thing! Quite what the LPG carrier "Tarihiko" was doing heading towards Onehunga, instead of its usual berth at the LPG Marine Terminal round the back of the airport, Lord alone knows. But you don't need to be Einstein to know that all hell would have broken loose had something untoward occurred while the ship was passing through the populated areas overlooking the Wairopa Channel!
	Here's an unusual photo of "Westport", alongside the old Mangere Bridge on Boxing Day 2003, as published in the NZ Herald. She was manoeuvring away from her berth when the towline to "Tika" snapped. A combination of strong winds and the incoming tide pushed her alongside the bridge, where she remained for a couple of hours until the tide turned, and "Tika" could pull her clear. There was minimal damage to both ship and bridge, though you can guarantee anyone fishing off the latter got a bit of a fright, not to mention a story for life of the really big one that came far too close for comfort before eventually getting away! According to Stephen Jones of Facebook page NZ Commercial Fishing Boat Photos, "It was a 40 knot sou'wester with a king tide, which means that's a good 8 knots of tide running east. The skipper backed over towards the other side then put into gear full with port lock ...". His photo appears left. Remarkably, a similar incident occurred on 18 March 2002, this time while "Westport" was attempting to berth with "Tika"'s assistance. A fifty knot gust caught her as she was angling in to the wharf, and drove "Westport" towards the bridge. Thankfully, no contact was made.
	"Spirit Of Resolution" under escort from "Tika" on Waitangi Day, 2005, after its grounding mishap the previous day, the report on which is found in the Incident Reports area of this section. She also had a couple of close calls at Onehunga in 2004, touching bottom and bending her propeller blades when sailing on 29 July, then being caught against the Mangere Bridge by a combination of strong winds and the tide on 12 August, while trying to berth. And on 23 February 2006, while approaching the turning basin prior to berthing, a steering failure saw "Spirit Of Resolution" overshoot the channel and run aground on the mud thirty metres north-east of Reef Beacon. She was refloated with the assistance of "Tika", a helpless onlooker as the incident unfolded while she was standing by to assist with the berthing process.
	Forgot something? Not a sight you see very often, this one, for any ship. All appeared in order as "Westport" headed down the harbour on another voyage south around lunchtime one Saturday. Next thing you know, she'd slowed to a halt, and is shown here in mid-turn prior to heading back to Onehunga. There's no truth to the rumour that the cook was waiting wharfside upon arrival, armed with a large order for the crew from the Mangere Bridge chippie, Neptune Fisheries!
Sourced from www.photoship.co.uk	Not so much a close call as one that never happened! In 1968, the Northern Steam Ship Company took delivery of "Seaway Princess", built in Hong Kong specifically for their plans to exploit her roll-on roll-off capabilities at Onehunga, on a planned weekly service to Lyttelton. The fly in the ointment was the Auckland Harbour Board, who, after promising to build a linkspan so the new service could operate at the Port, later advised that it lacked the necessary funds to carry out the construction work! Northern eventually cut their losses, and sold her to Holm Shipping a year later.
	Christmas 1998 wasn't memorable for all the right reasons at Onehunga Wharf. Just 48 hours prior to the big day, Pacifica Shipping laid off ten waterside workers, with the company opting to use Mt. Maunganui-based stevedores who were willing to work the twelve-hour days Pacifica sought in their bid to improve the quality and cost-effectiveness of their coastal shipping services. The Onehunga stevedores were only willing to work eight-hour days, a stance backed by the Waterfront Workers Union. Negotiations with Pacifica over changes to working conditions had proved fruitless, prompting the company to go down the redundancy route. Cue a round-the-clock picket at the Port, which the Waterfront Workers Union indicated would continue indefinitely, despite a few arrests for assault charges being made on the picket line during the Christmas break. The dispute was eventually resolved.
	Hear the one about the container that went for a swim? On 8 October 1995, "Spirit Of Progress" was working at Onehunga when an empty red 2 tonne, 20 foot container dropped from her crane about 11.15am and landed in the Manukau, down which it began to drift half-submerged until it sank out of sight ... in the Wairopa Channel! Ports of Auckland was advised at 11.20am, and the Manukau Volunteer Coast Guard team was aware of the issue by 1pm, promptly broadcasting a navigation warning to local boaties. An official request for a warning to mariners wasn't made for a further six hours. Next morning, two boats set off from the wharf down the channel with a drag line between them. They eventually found the container via this means early in the afternoon, and marked the site with a buoy. This discovery averted the closure of the harbour to commercial shipping. The container was eventually towed back to the wharf at low tide.
Photo sourced from www.marbnet.com Photo shows vessel as "Thor Guardian", following her time as "Svendborg Guardian"	And to finish with a bang - at least it could have done had she carried on her merry way! "Svendborg Guardian" was launched in Denmark in May 1987, and was making her maiden voyage under the command of Captain Henning Lages. She was heading for Kauri Point with a cargo of eleven containers of ammunition from Europe destined for the New Zealand and Australian armed services when she appeared at the Manukau Heads, with the skipper under the impression, from the only chart of the area on board the vessel, that the entrance to Auckland was on the North Island's west coast! (Oh, how I wish it was so!) Meanwhile, a pilot was awaiting her arrival at the Waitemata Harbour entrance ... two VHF radio calls were forthcoming, one from Auckland Harbour Board officials requesting her latitude and longitude, and the other from the Manukau Heads signal station being of the "What the bloody hell are you doing here and where do you think you're going?" variety! Having approached from the north-west, across a line of reefs but at high tide, the ship, which was under the command of Captain Henning Lages, was about to cross the Manukau Bar when her geographic blunder came to light, the outward-bound "Fijian" playing a part by advising "Svendborg Guardian" of her dangerous position. She duly turned around before commencing the Bar crossing, and was very soon high-tailing it to the other side of town, where she finally turned up some 35 hours and 417 nautical miles later!