Captain considered beaching warship

The captain of a British warship holed when it hit rocks off the Australian coast has spoken about how he considered running his vessel aground to save her from sinking.

Commander Richard Farrington said he knew there was an emergency when he felt the destroyer HMS Nottingham shudder.

He was not on the bridge at the time the ship struck Wolf Rocks, several kilometres east of Lord Howe Island off the coast of New South Wales at about nine last night. None of the 253 crew aboard the destroyer was injured when it collided with the reef close to the World Heritage-listed holiday island.

Cmdr Farrington told a press conference today he had just returned to the ship by helicopter when it ran aground. The crew battled for an hour to float the ship free of the rocks. It is now anchored about a mile off the island's Middle Beach.

Emergency crews flown in overnight began assessing the damage to establish whether the 3,500-tonne destroyer, which has been in service for 22 years, can be repaired on the island or would need to be towed away.

Meanwhile, it was announced by the Ministry of Defence that a full inquiry had begun into the cause of the accident. Commander David Heley from the British Navy Directorate in London said a number of the ship's "war-side compartments" were flooded.

"The ship, however, is a warship and designed to take a fair degree of action damage, and the design that allows for action damage in war also allowed the ship to survive," he said.

The Nottingham, a Type 42 destroyer, is in the middle of a deployment to Australasian waters, where two Britishflagged freighters transporting 255kg of processed plutonium from Britain to Japan are due to pass in the next few weeks. It would not be unusual for the Royal Navy to shadow ships carrying such sensitive cargo.

Greenpeace has sent a protest flotilla, with two yachts, Love of Gaia and Kaileia, leaving Sydney Harbour yesterday to join seven vessels from New Zealand and one from the Pacific island of Vanuatu.

Greenpeace has argued that the accident is further evidence warships should not be allowed into World Heritage areas. Campaigner Stephen Campbell said it is remarkable that one of Britain's best naval ships could run aground in such unusual circumstances.

"The shipping companies continue to say that there's no problem and it's perfectly safe," he said. "Yet the British Navy has run aground and this is a vessel which presumably has the latest equipment and is the most technologically advanced vessel there is."