Another wessel touches bottom outside Durban

News from Transnet National Ports Authority (TNPA) that yet another ship touched bottom outside the Port of Durban has raised strong industry concern. In this case it was at 17:30 on December 1 when the container vessel, MV ER Elsfleth, with a draught of 11.5 metres and bound for Berth 105 at the Durban container terminal (DCT) was suspected to have touched ground outside the harbour entrance channel just before the breakwater. She was then towed by tugs to 105, where divers inspected the hull for damage. Then three days later, on December 4, TNPA reported to FTW that the dive team had found that there were some scratches found on the port quarter of the vessel. But, the e-mail hinted, it was not TNPA’s fault. “It has been established,” said acting port manager, S’bu Nhlabathi, “that the incident was not related to the Port of Durban. The incident happened outside the port entrance channel adjacent to the south breakwater.” Nhlabathi also told us that “further investigation of the ship’s manoeuvring control system is being undertaken”. But all the shipping executives, master mariners and marine consultants that FTW talked to about the grounding (and who all wished to remain nameless because of the sensitivity of the issue) laughed off TNPA’s not-guilty plea. Although FTW has not been able to ascertain the exact to bring the port and the entrance channel back to their charted depths. But what did they do? They had a knee-jerk reaction, and immediately increased the necessary keel clearance from 30 centimetres to 60cms for all berths in the harbour. That meant that Berths 105-205 (both Pier 1 and Pier 2 container terminals) – which were supposed to have a depth of 12.8 metres (except 107 which was still being dredged) – saw the previous 12.5m permissible draft dropped to 12.2m. And that reduction of 30cm, although it doesn’t seem much to the layman, is a huge amount as far as the bigger boxships are concerned, and vastly reduces each vessel’s payload. As one master mariner said: “Will TNPA now further reduce the draft to say 11m? If they did that, then they might as well close the port for good.” One thing for sure. Durban is no longer considered to be a safe haven by many ships masters, and the port is getting a distinct international reputation as a bad port to call at.