WELLINGTON, New Zealand (dpa) – A strong sea swell held up unloading containers from a ship that ran aground on a New Zealand reef two months ago, as the Dutch salvage company confirmed that it had set a high price on the cargo as a guarantee it would be paid for a long and difficult job.
It was the second day the weather had stopped workers from salvage company Svitzer unloading containers piled high on the deck of the 47,000-ton Liberian-registered Rena, which sits cracked almost in two and listing 21 degrees on the reef it hit on October 5.
A 3-metre swell continued to rock the stricken ship, preventing a crane barge that has already lifted 166 containers from the ship resuming the task of removing another 1,100.
Maritime New Zealand said, however, that salvors remained on board, installing rigging needed for the operation to continue when the seas drop and continuing to skim residual fuel oil from the wreck.
''No one knows how long this job is going to go on or how much it will cost,'' spokesman Matthew Watson told Radio New Zealand. ''Svitzer needs security and guarantee that it's being paid for the work.''
He refused to confirm a report that the company was claiming 80 per cent of the value of each consignment on the 47,000-ton container ship – a figure Television New Zealand reported was the highest rate ever charged on goods salvaged from a vessel.
Watson would not reveal the exact figure for reasons of commercial confidence, but said, ''The bar in the Rena case has been set quite high, simply because it reflects the protracted and complicated and time-consuming job of this case.''
TVNZ said the previous highest charge was 60 percent for cargo retrieved from the wreck of the ship Napoli off the west coast of England in January 2007.
New Zealander Craig Fellows said he faced having to pay 80 percent of the 100,000 New Zealand dollars (US$76,000) worth of household goods, including a car, he has in a container on the ship, which ran aground off the port of Tauranga on October 5.
Watson said Svitzer was acting in accordance with standard procedures for the salvage of a ship. If people had insured their goods on the vessel, they would get them back or the insurance value of their loss.
Svitzer did not start removing the more than 1,300 containers on board the ship until November 16, making its priority to pump off heavy fuel oil which had started leaking into the sea, creating New Zealand's worst ever maritime environmental disaster.
A total of 165 containers had been lifted off by a crane-equipped boat by Tuesday when bad weather halted the operation.
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