Cargo inspections and stowaways keep survey company busy

HAVING HIS luggage lost 15 times in 18 months by various airlines around the world is just part of the job for Walvis Bay-based marine surveyor Captain Pieter Bossers. He opened his independent marine survey, inspection and consulting company, Raffles Inspection Services, in 1996 after having worked in Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique and South Africa. Bossers retains his links to the industry in these areas, and is often contracted by insurance companies and shippers to consult on the loading and stowage of breakbulk cargo at the port of exit – and then to the destination port to offload the cargo. Which explains his (admittedly unconfirmed) record for having luggage lost. In Namibia itself, as one of a handful of marine surveyors, Bossers is kept busy with work ranging from cargo inspection through to repatriation of stowaways. It is here that his years in the rest of Africa provide invaluable background. Most of the stowaways are understandably unwilling to reveal their country of origin and identity. “The first thing I do if I suspect they are from East Africa is to greet them in Swahili. It is natural to react if you are greeted in your home language,” he says. Those are the relatively easy cases, and the stowaways can be sent home within a week or so. In others it can take months to establish their identities and nationalities. For bulk commodities, Bossers has built a laboratory in a container on his premises to analyse the loads of various bulk cargoes that are shipped through Walvis Bay. The discharge of bulk cargo such as wheat brings with it another set of challenges – Raffles measures how much cargo was discharged by calculating the displacement of the vessel before and after the offloading. Looking ahead, Raffles has the facilities and skills needed to cope with an expected growth in bulk exports through Walvis Bay and the arrival of a second floating dry dock. Bossers is assisted by Chakanyuka Dhliwayo, a Zimbabwean surveyor.