59 ship accidents around coast

2005-08-08 12:21

Cape Town - There were 59 accidents involving ships on or about the South African coast or in one of the country's ports during the 2003/04 financial year, says the SA maritime safety authority (Samsa).

This was 24 less than the previous year, it said in its annual report, tabled on Monday.

A number of these "casualties" had occurred in harbours.

"Three incidents occurred with ships manoeuvring into berths, either making contact with the ship ahead or astern.

"Two ships landed heavily on the quay, one making contact with the harbour cranes. One vessel ranged alongside and made contact with an overhead loader.

"A harbour tug made heavy contact with a container ship while assisting her manoeuvring alongside. The contact resulted in two of the ship's fuel tanks being holed with a resultant spill in the port," Samsa said.

The year also saw the incident involving the US container ship Sealand Express dragging her anchors ashore during a north-westerly gale in Cape Town's Table Bay.

The ship grounded off Sunset Beach, but was refloated 26 days later after a massive salvage operation.

Samsa's report shows local ports detained 15 ships during the course of the year for not being seaworthy. Nine of these were South African and six foreign vessels.

There were also 19 incidents of vessels causing oil pollution.

"Under the Oil Pollution Prevention Act, there were 19 oil pollution incidents, where 13 incidents involved foreign and South African ships where the owner, master or skipper had committed an offence."

The offences netted just over R1m in fines.

- SAPA