After a New Zealand navy vessel struck a reef and sunk, some social media users have identified the captain’s gender as the principal cause. The country’s defense minister has slammed the sexist abuse.

New Zealand’s defense minister has called out “vile” and “misogynistic” criticism of the female captain of a navy ship that sank off the coast of Samoa on Sunday.

“Seriously, it’s 2024,” Judith Collins told reporters on Thursday. “What the hell’s going on here? Where’s a bit of decency?”

HMNZS Manawanui ran aground on a reef it was surveying about a mile off the coast of Upolu, Samoa’s most populous island, before catching fire.

  • Nighed
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    2 months ago

    Lots of the oil exploration ships are custom built for the job. This one is old, but I would guess that there may be some design information regarding it’s survey capability that was marked as protected when it was purchased, even if it’s not really relevant anymore