Ship to Be Investigated in Ramming of Yacht

A 27,000-ton cargo ship arrived today in port at Inchon, South Korea, to face an international investigation in the ramming and sinking of a yacht off the New Zealand coast in which three Southern Californians were killed.

The Pan Grace, owned by a South Korean shipping line, apparently remains the sole ship not yet investigated in connection with the Nov. 24 sinking of the 47-foot yacht Melinda Lee.

More than 60 other ships were in the area at the time, according to maritime authorities in New Zealand, and the others have already been investigated and cleared.

The Melinda Lee sank after being hit just after 2 a.m. on Nov. 24 while sailing in rough seas some 30 miles off the northeast coast of New Zealand’s North Island. It was en route from the Tonga Islands to a popular tourist area on the North Island.

Aboard the Melinda Lee was the Sleavin family of Santa Clarita. They had left this country nearly three years ago on a prolonged round-the-world cruise.

Judith Sleavin, 41, was the sole survivor of the crash.

Her son, Benjamin, 9, was killed instantly. Her daughter, Anna Rose, 7, and husband, Michael, 42, clung with Judith Sleavin to a dinghy for several hours, then slipped into the sea. Judith Sleavin washed ashore on North Island after drifting in the dinghy for 42 hours. She was rescued about 20 hours after that.

She remains hospitalized with two cracked vertebrae at New Zealand’s Whangarei Base Hospital.

In a statement issued Friday through Gerard Winter, her lawyer in Whangarei, Judith Sleavin said: “An unknown ship has destroyed my life. An unknown ship sank my yacht and left my family . . . dead, abandoned at sea. I want to find that ship now.”

Because the Melinda Lee was a U.S.-registered yacht and because the accident took place in international waters, the U.S. Coast Guard has joined the investigation. Coast Guard officials could not be reached Sunday night for comment.

Officials at New Zealand’s Maritime Safety Authority declined Sunday to identify any ship as a suspect.

The agency earlier issued a statement noting only that a “quantity of marine debris” had been recovered from the area where the Melinda Lee sank. But it said, “The items appeared to have been in the water for a considerable time and accordingly may not be connected with this accident.”

According to a report from the Associated Press, the Pan Grace, carrying logs from New Zealand, was a day late in arriving at Inchon, 25 miles west of Seoul, because of rough seas.

Pan Ocean Shipping Co. of Seoul, owner of the ship, had contacted ship captain Kim Hong-mo, who said he did not know about the incident, the Associated Press reported.

“The sea condition was so bad at the time of the incident that the crew may not have known what happened even if the ship was involved,” company spokesman Hong You-shik told the Associated Press.