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Wednesday, August 27, 2008 - Web posted at 7:25:10 AM GMT Fishing trawler runs aground ADAM HARTMANTHE fishing trawler Zeila ran aground 20 km north of Wlotzkasbaken in stormy seas yesterday morning. |
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The 400-tonne trawler and another, larger trawler, Lara, were on their way to India after being bought by Indian company AK Shipping from Hangana Seafood in Walvis Bay three weeks ago, says Paul van der Merwe of Walvis Bay Diving and Launch Services. The Lara towed the Zeila out of the Walvis Bay harbour on Monday afternoon on their voyage to India via Cape Town. About five kilometres out of the harbour, strong winds and stormy seas caused the tow ropes to snap. The Zeila, which had been stripped of its engine, was swept northward by the strong current and floated through the night before running aground about 70 km north of Walvis Bay. At around 06h00 yesterday morning, an angler north of Wlotzkasbaken informed the Namibian Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) of the vessel that was drifting towards the shore. Swakopmund businessman and Namibian rubber-duck champion Quinton Liebenberg, who has participated in several sea rescue operations, was also called. As luck would have it, Liebenberg was still at Henties Bay after winning the Henties Bay Fish Festival rubber-duck competition on Saturday. "Fortunately our duck was still on the trailer because we had just completed the Henties race. Archie van der Merwe and I immediately drove out to the scene," Liebenberg told The Namibian. On their arrival, the boat was about 200 metres from the beach. It was already tilting to the side. Two Indian engineers were trapped on it. According to Liebenberg, a big swell made it hard to get close enough to the vessel to climb on board. "Communicating with the two men was nearly impossible. They did not know what we wanted them to do, and vice versa. They eventually dropped a life jacket with a cellphone number on, which we called. It was one of their numbers and so we managed to work out a way to rescue them," said Liebenberg. The two men eventually threw down some of their belongings into the rubber dinghy and made a five-metre jump for safety. Liebenberg had to make six trips to the shore and back to the vessel. The rescue operation took about an hour. One of the men had a crushed finger; otherwise there were no injuries. "It really sucks that no real sea rescue exists here. Government, municipalities and the private sector can do so much more to put together a decent sea rescue facility for cases like these," Liebenberg criticised. Chandler Plato of the NSRI in Walvis Bay said the men were already rescued when they arrived. "We are lucky we had Quinton and Archie," he said. "It was a dangerous situation out there." According to him, the rescued men hugged and kissed their rescuers. Paul van der Merwe said there was no risk of oil pollution since there was no fuel on the vessel. "What one sees is only the shell. Everything else has been removed. It was just waiting to sink, and so it was bought to be scrapped," he said. Unlike the Kolmanskop fishing vessel that ran aground on rocks south of Swakopmund in 2006, the Zeila is on sand and therefore salvaging might be easier. "It all depends on the owners in the end, if they're willing to spend the money to salvage it," he said. "The Kolmanskop should have been removed a long time ago too." According to Van der Merwe, the wrong precedent could have been set by the wreck of the Kolmanskop not being removed. "The owners might say that they don't want to salvage it, and just leave it where it is because the Kolmanskop was not salvaged," he said. |
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