Salvage specialist probes mystery of missing ‘Hawk’

RAY SMUTS CAPE TOWN salvage specialist Godfrey Needham is determined to get to the bottom of the loss of his utility tug, the Hawk, which sank about 17 days ago at an as yet unidentified point off the Natal south coast. Crewed by four, the vessel had been in Richards Bay for seven months, engaged by contractors on the extension of the coal terminal. It was last heard of on November 8, failing to arrive at East London two days later. Needham tells FTW that apart from two life jackets and a life raft, all identified as belonging to the vessel, no other debris has been found. The full-time air and sea search has been called off, replaced by what Needham terms a ‘passive search’ – that is, if anything is retrieved from the sea it will be investigated, “We will probably never know what happened to her where she lies in about 70 metres of water, but I would very much like to look at her on the ocean bed to determine the cause of the sinking. “She went down about five miles off Margate but the difficulty is finding her. As no mayday was sounded we do not know exactly where she is.”