Giant tug rallies to assistance of capsized bulker

Ray Smuts THE POWERFUL South African tug John Ross has gone to the assistance of a giant Japanese-owned bulk carrier after it capsized in stormy weather 2 000 nautical miles from Cape Town. Seven officers including the master are missing but about 30 crew of the 150 000-ton, Panamanian-registered Kamikawa Maru took to life rafts after the vessel was damaged in heavy seas. They were picked up by a Greek ship which was on its way to Cape Town as this issue went to press on Monday morning. When last spotted by a Brazilian maritime reconnaisance aircraft late on Thursday, the Kamikawa Maru was floating upside down at longitude 20 degrees west which would put her position closer to South America than Africa. Weather conditions were said to be severe. Vessel was fully laden with iron ore The John Ross, which had been involved with the stranded Ikan Tanda operation at Scarborough, left Cape Town at midnight on Wednesday and according to salvage expert Godfrey Needham would take at least four days, weather permitting, to reach the crippled vessel. As the Kamikawa Maru is well outside of the S.A.Maritime Rescue Co-ordination Centre's area, information reaching FTW was sketchy at printing deadline. An attempt to glean information from Brazilian maritime authorities proved unsuccessful as no one at the Silvermine co-ordination centre near Simon's Town was able to speak Portuguese and vice versa. Needham speculated that the cause of the vessel turning turtle could either have been due to cargo shifting and a list developing - she was fully laden with iron ore - or that cracks in her side had opened and flooded ballast tanks. l Meanwhile, an oil pollution risk was averted when favourable weekend weather enabled the removal of most of the oil from the Ikan Tana.