- A bulk carrier abandoned after it grounded off the coast of South Africa amid severe weather has broken up, authorities said.
- The 13,800-dwt vessel has broken into four parts following a renewed bout of bad weather.
Salvage work on the grounded Panama-flagged general cargo vessel, beached on its side in a remote area of South Africa’s west coast since early July, has taken another turn after the vessel broke apart due to yet another spell of a stormy wintry weather at the weekend, leading to an oil spillage, reports Safety4sea citing SAMSA.
Battle to contain oil spill
In a statement released in Cape Town on Sunday afternoon, SAMSA said that as a direct result of this latest incident, an oil spill contingency plan had been immediately activated, with as many as 125 people from local communities enlisted in the mop up phase.
“The grounded Panama-flagged cargo ship has broken into four sections overnight, leading to an oil spill. All attempts are being made to contain the spill within the immediate area, and cleaning operations will continue,” said SAMSA.
“At one stage, 6.8-meter swells struck the wreck every 15 seconds, and the massive force of this constant battering caused the accommodation (section) to first break off, which then led to a number of larger cracks on the hull, forward of the accommodation,” SAMSA added.
According to SAMSA, this recent incident happened shortly after salvors had successfully removed several lube oil drums and approximately eight tons of marine gas oil from the wreck’s fuel tanks earlier in the week.
“An Orange level 6 warning for damaging winds and waves was issued earlier in the week, with conditions expected to last until Monday, with the swell subsiding by Wednesday. Active salvage work will resume once it is safe to access the wreck,” said SAMSA.
As explained, meanwhile, members of the public on the West Coast, from Brand se Baai to St Helena Bay, are requested to look out for any debris that may wash up on the beach, such as cargo bags, steel hatch covers, and other flotsam.
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Source: Safety4sea
