The Ultimate New Zealand Soccer Website | home
Tainui | Takapu | Tangaroa | Taranui | Tarapunga | Tarihiko | Tasi | Taupata | Tawanui | Thor Star | Tiare Moana | Titoki | Titoki | Toa Moana | Totara | Totara | Towai | Turihaua | Union Nelson | Unitedgeo 1 | United Sailor | Unit Shipper | Verao | Vili | Viti | Waiotahi | Wellington Exporter | Western Spruce | Westport | Westport | Zephyr II
Western Spruce
 Shown as "Dantzler Spruce" in Nelson in 1968. Sourced from Nelson Photo News
|
||||||||||||||||||||
A 400 ton oil survey ship built in New Orleans and valued at $800,000, she was owned by the Western Geophysical Company, and powered by two General Motors V-16 marine diesel engines, producing a service speed of 11 knots.
She made two calls to Onehunga in early 1968, either side of carrying out a month-long seismic survey up to 70 miles offshore between Karamea and Greymouth.
There was some confusion about her name while in NZ. "Dantzler Spruce" appeared on the hull, but "Western Spruce" was used in all official communications
After the aforementioned survey, she then underwent a refit in Wellington, which was carried out by NZ Industrial Gases, soon after which she entered the Sydney drydock when cracks caused by liquid oxygen seepage were found in the deck below the tank, and in the ship's side.
It was the call she made to Port Welshpool, 120 miles east of Melbourne on 22 March 1969, for which she became renowned.
She was on lease to Esso-BHP, and engaged on the oil search project in Bass Strait, when loading liquid oxygen from a tanker on the wharf. Around 7.30pm, a leak was noticed, and within seconds, explosions which could be heard twenty miles away tore through the ship as a ball of fire, fueled by a combination of the ship's fuel supply, 100 oxygen cylinders and 1000 gallons of liquid propane, lit up the night sky.
The two tanker drivers were killed instantly, while a South African crew member died two days later from the burns he suffered. Twenty others were injured, many of them thrown into the water by the force of the explosions.
Two quick-thinking shore staff risked their own lives to cut through the nylon mooring ropes and free her from the wharf, thus minimising the damage the fire and explosions made to the on-shore structures.
The blazing "Western Spruce" then drifted half-a-mile downstream onto a sandbank near Snake Island, where the blaze eventually burnt itself out the following day.
The subsequent Marine Court of Inquiry unveiled numerous instances of bad practice being used in the ship's operation, and found four companies were ultimately jointly responsible for the events which led to the loss of three lives and "Western Spruce".
|