Damaged ore bulker awaits help

The damaged Chinese bulk carrier Long Charity remains at anchor off Saldanha, awaiting help of the non-benevolent kind by way of a costly alternative vessel to offload her iron ore cargo. The 93 000 gross tonne vessel was holed on a reef after engine failure on leaving the port of Saldanha on July 23. The Women’s Day long weekend saw salvors, Svitzer, nearing completion of a South African Maritime Safety Authority mandate to remove the vessel’s 3 000 tons of fuel onto a product tanker, the Wappen Von Bremen, an operation interrupted by inclement weather. Procuring a special side-craneequipped vessel to accommodate the Long Charity’s cargo was proving more problematic. However, National Ports Authority port manager Eugene Kearns told FTW on Sunday evening (August 9) he was not aware of a solution to hand. Fortunately the bay, one of South Africa’s most environmentally sensitive estuaries, remains free of any oil spillage. Responding to comment by noted shipping writer and maritime educator Brian Ingpen that serious ramifications could have resulted had the Long Charity sunk in the bay, Kearns said: “Of course, but that would apply to any port.” Meanwhile, a veil of secrecy continues to surround reasons for the sinking of the bulk carrier Ioannis NK off the Cape West coast, more than 150 nautical miles off Cape Town (FTW July 31, 2009). FTW understands the 32-yearold ship’s class certificates, which in part indicated its seaworthiness, were due to expire on August 16, while she would still have been at sea. The vessel’s crew was stopped by court interdict as they attempted to leave Cape Town by air, confined to a Mother City hotel but remaining silent over the reason for the disaster. This was apparently on instruction from the ship’s owners who have also been unco-operative in assisting Samsa’s investigation into the sinking, which consigned 22 500 tons of India-bound sugar to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean.