Headline-grabbing Argun slips quietly out of CT

RAY SMUTS GONE BUT not likely to be easily forgotten; a fitting epitaph for the Russian vessel MT Argun which recently slipped quietly and legitimately out of the port of Cape Town after being under arrest for more than four and a half years. During that time, as her engines lay silent and she slipped out of class, numerous court actions were waged over monies owed to various parties, one relief master was severely injured after falling through a porthole, and another found dead from a suspected heart attack in his cabin. Among disgruntled creditors are three former groupings of the Argun’s crew owed more than US $300 000. but it was the Sheriff of Cape Town, obliged by law to preserve the vessel, who ran up the highest bill, some R7,3 million. High-level litigation surrounding the Argun and other vessels has clarified what Sheriff Hennie Hurter terms “certain grey areas” in South Africa’s maritime law, making plain that the onus rests with the arresting creditor/s to pay the Sheriff’s costs of preservation. The Argun, a 4 816 gross ton multi-purpose tanker owned by the Russian Federation, was sold at auction for US$1,6 million to a Panamanian company Avantgarde 2 Shipping on November 21 last year. The vessel underwent certain repairs to the tune of more than R2 million in Cape Town in 2001, thought to have been paid for by Russian financiers, and is now believed to be undergoing a refit in the port of Murmansk. The Cape High Court has appointed as referee University of Cape Town maritime academic Professor John Hare, tasked with weighing claims submitted and then deciding on the distribution of monies owed. FTW understands he is anxious to conclude his work by the end of May due to other commitments. Riaan Carstens of the Sheriff’s office confirms certain payments have already been approved by Hare including R4,4 million to the Sheriff, but considers it unlikely that the whole amount (R7,3 million) will be forthcoming as certain other creditors are also laying claim to preservation costs.