The cargo ship from Vietnam (pictured above) carrying 15 000 tonnes of rice en route to Gabon – which ran aground approximately seven miles seaward south of the Knysna Heads due to engine failure – was scheduled to be towed safely to shore by the South African Maritime Safety Authority (Samsa) on Tuesday morning, August 13, “conditions permitting”. This according to acting chief executive of Samsa’s Centre for Shipping, Captain Nigel Campbell, who told FTW that the authority was doing “all it could” to contain the oil spill. “There were no big chunks of black oil, other than near the ship, and we hope to get close today to break up the oil there,” Campbell said on Monday.
