Joint effort averts grounding of ship

A three-day operation to prevent an empty oil tanker from running aground was successfully carried out over the weekend.

The operation was initiated at about 7.30pm on Friday after a tow rope linking a tugboat and the tanker pulled loose and became entangled in the tugboat’s propellers off Cape St Francis.

The tanker, the MT Order, was being towed to Maputo to be scrapped and had no crew on board.

The boats were about 27km offshore when they were stranded without power but had drifted to about 7km offshore by Saturday morning.

The alarm was raised by the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre, which alerted the Transnet National Ports Authority and placed three National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) stations – St Francis Bay, Jeffreys Bay and Port Elizabeth – on standby.

The South African Maritime Safety Authority (Samsa) confirmed yesterday that a probe was under way and that the tanker had been towed back out to sea.

By midday, it was about 150km off Algoa Bay, being towed by the SA Amandla.

NSRI St Francis Bay station commander Sarah Smith said after the tow rope came undone, the 14-strong tugboat crew had tried everything to detach the boat from the tanker and reattach the rope.

“However, without a tender boat to recover their towline from the water and with the rope fouled around one motor [propeller], the MT Order was at risk of running aground,” she said.

“Rope fouled around the motor of the AHT Carrier [tugboat] had been loosened but one motor was still not operational.”

Meanwhile, the SA Amandla salvage vessel set sail on Friday night from Cape Town to assist.

“It was reported that salvage divers had been activated from Cape Town but it would take quite some time to reach the scene,” Smith said.

On Saturday morning, a decision was made to attach ropes to the MT Order and the tugboat, enabling the tug – with its one motor – to stop the tanker from drifting to shore.

How the tow rope came undone, or whether it snapped, is being investigated.

The government-managed SA Amandla arrived on Saturday afternoon and towed the tanker further out to sea while salvage divers went to the tug to remove the rope.

Port St Francis harbour master Johan Barnard said emergency personnel, disaster management and salvage experts had been on standby during the operation.

Samsa deputy chief operations officer Captain Nigel Campbell said the MT Order was a decommissioned vessel and had been on its way to be scrapped.

It had no cargo or bunkers on board.

Campbell said while the MT Order was being towed out to sea, the tugboat was on its way to the Port of Port Elizabeth for repairs and inspection.