Ray Smuts
WHILE the dilapidated Cyprus-registered tanker Ritas - impounded in Cape Town after leaking oil into the port - awaited transfer of her 34 000 ton diesel cargo last week, searching questions were being posed about the seaworthiness of many vessels calling at South African ports and how to contain this scourge.
John Woodend, the Mother City's outgoing port captain, has no misgivings as to the course of action.
I am worried not only about the fact that a lot of armchair surveys are going on which should cease, but that the classification societies should be taken to task, he told FTW.
Referring to the 22-year-old Ritas as one of the most neglected ships he had ever seen, Woodend told me: This ship was in class with Lloyds, now how the hell can that be when she is in the condition she is in? Her safety equipment inspection was done four months ago yet a lot of things including pumps and fire monitors don't work.
Ritas, said Woodend, was a floating nightmare, the kind I dream about in bad dreams, but he did not agree entirely with one line of thinking, that the flag states should bear total responsibility for unseaworthy vessels.
A representative from Cyprus had visited Cape Town after the Ritas incident became known and he is as peeved off as we are at the condition of the ship.
As to the port authority's role in times such as this, Woodend asserted it was impossible for a port captain to inspect every ship. He has to rely on his pilots who are instructed that if they won't go to sea on the ship they should report it, which is what happened in Cape Town, resulting in the Samsa inspection and our decision to stop her from sailing.
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