Rena Disaster

Container-shifting vessel due to arrive

09:45 am on 13 October 2011

The vessel that will be used to unload containers from the stranded container ship Rena is due to arrive in Bay of Plenty on Thursday.

The Pancaldo is a multi-purpose ship with two cranes and large container capacity.

Maritime New Zealand's director, Catherine Taylor, says that while the Australian vessel cannot unload the ship at the moment because of conditions, its presence will be very important for Motiti Island residents - because the vessel will be off the western side of the island, lifting containers out of the water.

Ms Taylor says it is believed some containers have broken up at Motiti Island already.