Double whammy as vessels come to grief

Last week wasn't a particularly good week for local shipping with drama in both oceans. In the southern Angolan port of Namibe Ocean Africa Container Lines’ vessel Umgeni had a setback when one of two deck cranes ‘collapsed’ across the ship’s deck. There were apparently no injuries and the problem isn’t seen as too serious by Ocean Africa. Andrew Thomas, the company’s chief executive, told FTW that Umgeni was able to sail from Namibe to Walvis Bay with the owner’s superintendent on board to assess the extent of the damage and to determine its cause. “They’ll take a decision in Walvis Bay whether to do the repairs immediately or to continue operating the ship with only one crane. If it’s the latter we’ll re-direct the ship onto a course away from ports where ships' gear is necessary,” he said. It was worse news for Ocean Africa from the other side of the continent. Another of the line’s container ships, the Border, went aground in the approaches to Beira harbour with a harbour pilot on board. Combined with some very bad weather this meant the port had to be closed to other traffic. Beira’s harbour master Tomo Mandava said during the week that refloating attempts had been hampered by bad weather conditions that prevented a pilot going back on board. When this issue went to press on Monday morning (February 18), news was that salvors were hoping to refloat the ship on the high tide of February 20.