A stricken Ukrainian ship, Askania Nova, whose seawater inlet pipe burst on the high seas, was towed to safety in Algoa Bay on Monday, 11 August. The fully-leaden Askania Nova is loaded with soya beans and manned by a crew of 24. The pipe burst when the ship was about 2 900km east of Port Elizabeth en route from Cape Town to Japan. Total flooding of the engine room occurred and the ship sent out a distress signal to which the John Ross, a salvage tug, responded. There was no threat of oil pollution and even the water pumped from the engine room had been skimmed to remove free floating oil.
