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.
So dumb. The captain can be partially blamed if there was negligence considering planned routes going through areas with bad ZOC (zone of confidence), or bad knowledge of depth in easier terms. Which might be a reason as they were surveying the area. But that’s pure speculation.
Trying to blame anything on the captain being a woman is just ridiculous. The navigator on watch could also run the ship aground due to bad navigation, without the captain even being included in the process.
Every time a grey ship is in an accident people open their cake holes. Let the investigation do its thing, then come back next year spewing your shit.