The stricken Antigua Barbuda-registered vessel that risked running aground off the eastern coast of South Africa near Mbhashe last week, is currently docked at the port of East London, the South African Maritime Safety Authority (Samsa) has confirmed in a statement.
Captain Daron Burgess, technical manager for Samsa’s southern region in Port Elizabeth, said a Transnet National Ports Authority (TNPA) tug, SHASA, had towed it to the port.
The successful rescue followed a “dramatic and tense 56 hours” after the vessel – a 4 900-tonne general cargo ship named BBC Shanghai – reported engine trouble while sailing off the Indian Ocean a few hundred nautical miles south of Port St Johns.
The vessel was believed to be travelling from Durban to Lagos in Nigeria. It left the port of Durban on Monday and was scheduled to arrive in Lagos on or about 28 March.
After receiving a distress call, the Cape Town-based Samsa Maritime Rescue Coordinating Centre (MRCC) immediately mobilised support and rescue for the stricken vessel and her crew and cargo.
All crew is safe and the cargo undamaged, said Burgess. According to unconfirmed media reports, the ship was carrying nuclear waste.
