Contractor dies in barge demolition operation

An intricate maritime operation to obliterate Margaret, the wrecked barge, from the Cape West coastline forever suffered a tragic set-back last week when a contractor was tragically killed. John Charles Mitchell (55) of Durban and attached to Blasting and Demolition Services, apparently fell and suffered a fatal neck injury. The South African Maritime Safety Authority (Samsa) has initiated an enquiry into the tragedy, temporarily suspending the operation until further notice last week. Margaret, fresh from the Chinese shipyards, was on her maiden voyage to her future home port of Rotterdam via Durban when she ran aground in savage weather at Jacobsbaai on June 24, last year. One of two barges under tow by the tug, Salvaliant, she had broken free with her cargo of 12 river barges and two floating docks, ending her short seagoing life ignominiously – on the rocks. In January of this year, after Margaret’s Dutch owner Leo Boer had spent an estimated R21 million trying to salvage the precious wreck and finally given up, Samsa mobilised SMIT Amandla Marine to topple the wreck in a “systematic manner by means of implosion”. Samsa tells FTW costs of what will clearly be a costly exercise will have to be borne by the South African taxpayer. A plan is however in place to defer some costs by selling the scrap – five smaller, undamaged, barges.