Agulhas makes its final exit

RAY SMUTS
NOW you see it, now you don’t. Gradually disappearing from the East London shoreline is the fore section of the doomed containership, Safmarine Agulhas, as salvors work seven days a week to remove the entire wreck before deadline. Martijn Kuipers, MD of Mammoet Southern Africa, has told FTW the salvage contract allows for completion within 230 days which should take the operation into the first week of June. “Weather depending, we should complete the job in the given time,” says Dutch naval architect Hans Schiet, of Mammoet Salvage. Last week, Schiet told FTW it took three days to haul the vessel’s fore section onto land, first with four, then six, ‘pullers’, each with capacity for 300-plus tons. “When the section came onto the beach it weighed
2 000 tons. We have already cut away about 25% and hope to dismantle the entire section by the end of this month.” The containers have already been removed. Thereafter comes the smaller aft section of the ship, heavier because of the engine room equipment and 46 containers still on board, an operation that could require up to eight ‘pullers’. About 8 000 tons is involved in all. The ten-year-old Liberian-registered containership, on charter to Safmarine, was bound from East London for Durban with 469 loaded and 112 empty containers when she apparently suffered engine failure and ran aground near the western breakwater on June 26, last year.