Insurers prepare for massive claims

ALAN PEAT ON THURSDAY last week (January 18) marine insurers in Durban told FTW they were writing a lot of zeros in potential claims for SA cargo aboard the stricken MSC Napoli. The 275-metre (900-feet) long vessel of some 62 000-tonnes and 4 400-TEU capacity was en route from Europe to SA when she suffered damage to her hull from an unconfirmed cause in severe gale force nine winds (more than 50-mph) and nine-metre swells, some 45 miles off the Lizard peninsula in Southwest England. The 26 crew members abandoned ship after it got into difficulties, but were airlifted to safety by two helicopters from RNAS Culdrose. A French salvage team was transferred onto the Napoli by helicopter to assess the vessel’s integrity, with the emergency towing vessel Anglian Princess and a French tug standing by. Although the initial plan was to tow the vessel to a port and discharge the cargo ashore, Glen Delve, operations manager of MSC in Durban, told FTW on Monday just before print deadline that the salvage team had had to ground the Napoli on a channel sandbar while they attempted to stabilise the ship. There was, therefore, at that time no final news on the fate of what he estimated as “about 2 400-TEUs” bound for SA.