The starboard side of Maersk Dabou was damaged when the engines failed while it was docking.
A container ship may be stranded at Port Chalmers for days, after it was holed during a berthing manoeuvre at the port.
“The vessel was turning in the basin before berthing, when the engines failed. It was part way through the turn and it hit the end of Beach St wharf,” Port Otago chief executive Geoff Plunket said yesterday.
Warren Lewis, of Port Chalmers, said, “The hole would have been about 5m by 2m. It’s a big hole. You could walk through it.”