Tanker detained under Maritime Safety Act

Maritime safety authorities have launched an investigation into the deaths at sea of 14 South African chokka fishermen after a tanker collided with their trawler off Port Elizabeth.

The 14 men are believed to have drowned when their 30-metre steel fishing vessel, the Lindsay, was hit by the 20 000-ton fruit juice tanker Ouro do Brasil while they were at anchor nine miles off the coast at Sardinia Bay.

The collision happened in the dead of night early on Sunday. A search for survivors was called off after other boats in the area and the National Sea Rescue Institute at Port Elizabeth found nothing other than pieces of wreckage and life jackets from the sunken Lindsay.

The fishing vessel's skipper and one crewman had a miraculous escape when they were thrown overboard by the violence of the impact. But their fellow crew, who had gone below decks to their bunks to sleep for the night, were believed to have gone down with their ship.

The master, Paul Landers of Mossel Bay, is in intensive care at St George's Hospital in Port Elizabeth with broken ribs, but crewman John Ehlers was treated only for shock.

The Ouro do Brasil, which has docked in Port Elizabeth with minor damage, has been detained under the Maritime Safety Act for at least the duration of the investigation.

The Ouro do Brasil was a Liberian-registered vessel with German officers and a South American crew, said Captain Nigel Campbell, chief investigator of the South African Maritime Safety Authority in Port Elizabeth.

"We have already taken statements from the tanker's master, officer of the watch and lookout and today we will continue the investigation by questioning them," Campbell said.

The investigation into the collision is expected to focus on the two vessels' positions and the extent to which they had kept a proper lookout while at sea.

Source: www.iol.co.za