Container ships collide off Durban

TERRY HUTSON TWO CONTAINER ships at anchor in the Durban outer anchorage collided in strong winds on Sunday afternoon (September 5). Shortly after 14:00 the 11 998-gt vessel Nordbeach, under charter to Maersk-Sealand / Safmarine for their Indian Ocean / India service began dragging her anchors and subsequently drifted down on the adjacent MSC Lauren, also lying at anchor in the roadstead. The resultant collision, which saw the larger 32 328-gt MSC vessel suffer considerable damage to her bows, ended up with anchor chains becoming entangled and the two vessels locked together. After receiving advice from the Maersk Constantia, which was also at anchor in the area, that a 40ft container had fallen overboard from the Nordbeach, Durban Port Control began issuing an appropriate navigation warning. A strong south-westerly buster was blowing at the time.