New Zealand Navy Frigate Sunk to Create Artificial Reef
Naval Frigater Canterbury
The Canterbury, a 3000 ton vessel, was plunged vessel 28 meters and is now resting upright on the bottom of Deep Water Cove. Hundreds of onlookers watched the frigate sink within minutes near Cape Brett..
Hundreds turned out in boats to see the 38-year-old warship scuttled as a dive wreck and artificial reef near Cape Brett after bad weather forced an attempt last month to be called off.
The 3000 tonne vessel took just minutes to plunge 28 metres to the bottom of Deep Water Cove after Paihia 14-year-old Lucy Hamnet detonated charges which cut six holes in the ship's hull.
Organisers of the sinking are calling it a textbook scuttling.
Bay of Islands Canterbury Trust chairman Richard Witehira says, while the ship listed as it went down, a sonar scan of the dive site shows she is sitting upright on the sea bed.
"My biggest worry was not getting good weather. We had a perfect day and I can't help feeling my ancestors up there had something to do with it."
Navy divers were to inspect the wreck for unexploded charges on Monday.
The trust hopes to declare the wreck safe to dive before the weekend.
Norm Greenall, a former shipwright in the New Zealand Navy, supervised an eight-month project to prepare the Canterbury for scuttling.
He had planned to be the last person to leave the frigate before it was sunk, so he could say a private farewell to the ship he helped to build and served on during his 30 years in the Navy.
But he feared he wouldn't be able to hold back the tears if he was left alone on the ship which made groaning sounds as if she was in the throes of death.
"It's the end of an era. There are only two steam-turbine-driven Leander Class frigates left in the Commonwealth."