Oil still trapped on board sunken Niagra

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Thu, 27 Oct 2011 7:00p.m.

Deep water salvage expert Keith Gordon

Deep water salvage expert Keith Gordon

With every passing hour more and more of the heavy fuel oil on board the damaged Rena is removed.

Salvers say they've now pumped around 750 tonnes off the ship, which leaves around 600 tonnes still on board.

Good progress, but of course there's still enough to create a major environmental disaster if the ship were to break up and the remaining oil escaped.

But further up the coast, between Auckland and Whangarei, there's another shipwreck full of oil. Few people even know she exists, but with aging fuel tanks on the verge of collapse a major oil spill could happen at any time.

Tristram Clayton met the man who says out-of-sight mustn't mean out-of-mind.

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27 Oct 2011 09:40p.m.

Carole Naylor wrote:

I would be surprised if the SS Niagra sunk off the coast of Whangarei had significant amounts of oil on board as claimed by the gentleman on Campbell live last night. The Niagra as indicated by the 'SS' was a steam ship which ran on coal. It was carrying 349 passengers and crew and a large consignment of gold ingots for the Bank Of England when it was sunk by a German mine during WWII in 1940. No mention is made of carrying oil. When trying to recovering the gold 6 months later the salvers had to dodge further mines in the waters. The salvers blasted their way into the hold where the gold was held. These actions would have been very dangerous actions if there was any significant amount of oil present.

27 Oct 2011 09:40p.m.

Carole Naylor wrote:

I would be surprised if the SS Niagra sunk off the coast of Whangarei had significant amounts of oil on board as claimed by the gentleman on Campbell live last night. The Niagra as indicated by the 'SS' was a steam ship which ran on coal. It was carrying 349 passengers and crew and a large consignment of gold ingots for the Bank Of England when it was sunk by a German mine during WWII in 1940. No mention is made of carrying oil. When trying to recovering the gold 6 months later the salvers had to dodge further mines in the waters. The salvers blasted their way into the hold where the gold was held. These actions would have been very dangerous actions if there was any significant amount of oil present.