Ghost ship Nina: Missing for four months in the vastness of the Pacific, with seven crew presumed dead, is this faint satellite image a glimmer of hope?
Mystery has shrouded the fate of the Nina, a mahogany schooner which
vanished after sailing into a severe storm in June. No trace of it was
found during a search of more than half a million square nautical miles
of the Pacific. The last word from the boat was an undelivered text
message reporting: “Sails shredded last night.”
Relatives of the crew – six Americans, including David Dyche, the Nina’s owner and skipper, and 35-year-old Matt Wootton, from Orpington, Kent – say the object in the satellite images is the same size and shape as the 21-metre Nina. A private search and rescue company recruited by the families, Texas EquuSearch, is trying to plot its probable course before conducting an aerial search.
“We have never lost hope that the crew of Nina is alive and well, and that they will be rescued,” Robin Wright, whose 18-year-old daughter, Danielle, was on board, told The New Zealand Herald. However, the images gathered by EquuSearch are a month old, and some are sceptical as to whether they really depict the schooner. According to an Auckland-based meteorologist, Bob McDavitt, the area – about 200 kilometres west of Norfolk Island – is traversed by a vessel at least every other day. Even if the pictures do show the Nina, it may be a wreck – or a ghost ship, with no one left aboard.
The yacht – once the flagship of the New York Yacht Club – left Opua, in New Zealand’s Bay of Islands, on 29 May, headed for Newcastle, north of Sydney. It apparently weathered a storm on 4 June, with Evi Nemeth, a 73-year-old crew member, subsequently reporting the shredded sails.
Ms Nemeth said she would update the Nina’s position six hours later. But no further message was sent. Her undelivered text was released by the satellite phone company Iridium a month later. The boat’s emergency beacon was never activated.
On the day of the storm, Ms Nemeth – in the crew’s last direct contact with the outside world – had sought Mr McDavitt’s advice. The pair spoke by phone, after which she texted him, asking: “ANY UPDATE 4 NINA? … EVI.” That was the last he heard.
Nigel Clifford, the general manager of safety and response services for Maritime New Zealand, has said that while the Nina survived the storm, “very poor weather continued in the area for many hours and… [was] followed by other storms”.
Nina in 2012 (AFP/Getty)
New Zealand authorities have rejected calls by the crew’s families to resume their search. “We feel they are not going to be convinced by a satellite photo until they can see seven people holding their passports up, with their date of birth clearly visible,” said Mr Wootton’s father, Ian. He told the Herald that he and his wife, Sue, had mixed feelings when they first saw the photos. “You get the elation of ‘Yep, this looks like a really good image’. But also the downside of ‘How are you going to find it [the boat] again?’”
One expert, Ralph Baird, told the NY Daily News that the Nina was “a needle in a haystack, and that needle is moving”.
After the Nina disappeared, Russ Rimmington, a New Zealand skipper, claimed that the Nina was unseaworthy, with a warped hull, and that Mr Dyche – whose wife, Rosemary, and son, David, were also on board – refused to carry modern gadgetry.
Mr Rimmington also told Fairfax New Zealand that the Nina would have sunk if it had capsized, because of the lead on its keel.
Relatives of the crew – six Americans, including David Dyche, the Nina’s owner and skipper, and 35-year-old Matt Wootton, from Orpington, Kent – say the object in the satellite images is the same size and shape as the 21-metre Nina. A private search and rescue company recruited by the families, Texas EquuSearch, is trying to plot its probable course before conducting an aerial search.
“We have never lost hope that the crew of Nina is alive and well, and that they will be rescued,” Robin Wright, whose 18-year-old daughter, Danielle, was on board, told The New Zealand Herald. However, the images gathered by EquuSearch are a month old, and some are sceptical as to whether they really depict the schooner. According to an Auckland-based meteorologist, Bob McDavitt, the area – about 200 kilometres west of Norfolk Island – is traversed by a vessel at least every other day. Even if the pictures do show the Nina, it may be a wreck – or a ghost ship, with no one left aboard.
The yacht – once the flagship of the New York Yacht Club – left Opua, in New Zealand’s Bay of Islands, on 29 May, headed for Newcastle, north of Sydney. It apparently weathered a storm on 4 June, with Evi Nemeth, a 73-year-old crew member, subsequently reporting the shredded sails.
Ms Nemeth said she would update the Nina’s position six hours later. But no further message was sent. Her undelivered text was released by the satellite phone company Iridium a month later. The boat’s emergency beacon was never activated.
On the day of the storm, Ms Nemeth – in the crew’s last direct contact with the outside world – had sought Mr McDavitt’s advice. The pair spoke by phone, after which she texted him, asking: “ANY UPDATE 4 NINA? … EVI.” That was the last he heard.
Nigel Clifford, the general manager of safety and response services for Maritime New Zealand, has said that while the Nina survived the storm, “very poor weather continued in the area for many hours and… [was] followed by other storms”.
Nina in 2012 (AFP/Getty)
New Zealand authorities have rejected calls by the crew’s families to resume their search. “We feel they are not going to be convinced by a satellite photo until they can see seven people holding their passports up, with their date of birth clearly visible,” said Mr Wootton’s father, Ian. He told the Herald that he and his wife, Sue, had mixed feelings when they first saw the photos. “You get the elation of ‘Yep, this looks like a really good image’. But also the downside of ‘How are you going to find it [the boat] again?’”
One expert, Ralph Baird, told the NY Daily News that the Nina was “a needle in a haystack, and that needle is moving”.
After the Nina disappeared, Russ Rimmington, a New Zealand skipper, claimed that the Nina was unseaworthy, with a warped hull, and that Mr Dyche – whose wife, Rosemary, and son, David, were also on board – refused to carry modern gadgetry.
Mr Rimmington also told Fairfax New Zealand that the Nina would have sunk if it had capsized, because of the lead on its keel.
Satellite finds possible 'ghost ship' floating near Australia
- 3 months ago October 16, 2013
A satellite image of an object that could be the missing vessel Nina. Picture: ABC News
Source: Supplied
PICTURES of a mystery object floating in the Pacific Ocean are
giving hope to the families of seven crew members whose yacht went
missing on its way to Australia in June.
The Nina - a classic 85-year-old wooden vessel - was carrying six
Americans and one Brit when it disappeared off the coast of New Zealand.
The
yacht left New Zealand to sail to Australia on May 29 and has not been
heard from since it sailed through a heavy storm on June 4.
The
missing people are Captain David Dyche, 58, his wife Rosemary, 60, and
their son David, 17; their friend Evi Nemeth, 73; Kyle Jackson, 27;
Danielle Wright, 19 and Matt Wootton, 35, from Britain,
NY Daily News reports.
The Nina tied at dock at an unidentified location. Picture: AP
Source: AP
On June 4 Ms Nemeth sent a text message to a New Zealand
meteorologist asking for steering guidance: "ANY UPDATE 4 NINA? ...
EVI."
But the yacht did not activate its emergency locator beacon and it was not known to be missing until 10 days later.
Family
members hold hope that the crew is still alive and have been pleading
with US officials to search for the missing ship but so far they have
been ignored. They also want Australian and New Zealand authorities to
get involved.
This undated photo shows American
David Dyche, skipper of Nina which went missing while sailing from New
Zealand to Australia. Picture: AP
Source: AP
Ricky Wright, whose daughter Danielle is one of the missing, told The News: "We've got six Americans out there and the United States has only lifted a finger to say they're not involved.
"It
was a nightmare, and that's the most difficult part of this nightmare:
Why does the government not want to participate? That just baffles my
mind."
Ralph Baird, an adviser with volunteer group Texas
EquuSearch, said there was no clear evidence the ship had sunk but
warned that finding it would prove difficult because it vanished in such
a large area of ocean.
"It's a needle in the haystack, and that needle is moving," Mr Baird told The News.
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