# Ore carrier hits trawler



## rushie (Jul 5, 2005)

From the Herald on-line-

_Fishermen survive ship‘s collision with ore carrier

Cape Town – Fishermen on board a Sea Harvest deep sea trawler escaped unscathed when their vessel collided with a giant ore carrier about 64km off Saldanha on Wednesday night.

The 1 500-horsepower 46m Sea Harvest Tamara had 24 crew members onboard when the collision with the Anangel Splendour occurred at 10.30pm. The crew members were all rescued before the ship sank.

The SA Maritime Safety Authority (Samsa) is conducting a full investigation into the cause of the accident.

“During the night, our vessel was struck by an ore carrier. It was a very big vessel. There were 24 crew members on board, but no-one was injured,” said Sea Harvest managing director Mike Norris.

He said the entire crew was picked up by the ore carrier and other vessels.

“At the moment the crew is being brought to Saldanha and Samsa is busy interviewing our people and will issue a report on the outcomes. The longest time our people were in the sea was an hour. Nineteen crew members were rescued soon after the accident and the other five including the skipper were rescued later,” said Norris.

He said the ship‘s sinking was a major loss to Sea Harvest, but he was thankful that no-one had died .

Norris declined to allow interviews with the crew. He said they were from the Saldanha and Vredenburg areas.

Head of Samsa in Saldanha, Andre van Niekerk, said he had deployed a team to carry out an inspection and to conduct interviews with the crew members involved.

Samsa acting chief executive Carl Briesch said it was a “miracle” that not a single crew member had been injured.

He said they were still at the early stage of their probe in terms of the Merchant Shipping Act, and it would take about two to three months until a full report on the incident was released.

“It will depend on the complexity of the accident. At the moment details are very sketchy. Fortunately it didn‘t turn out to be another Lindsay,” said Briesch.

The Lindsay, also a fishing trawler, collided with a refrigerator ship the Ouro do Brasil and was swallowed by the sea along with 14 crew members off Sardinia Bay in May last year.

Only two crew members survived the ordeal. The other 14 crew members were never found. Most of them were employed at Cape Town company Viking Fishing.

“The Anangel Splendour was carrying a full cargo of coal from Richards Bay to Europe. It‘s a miracle that no-one was injured. When I heard about the incident at about 11 last night, 19 people had already been rescued. They actually managed to walk across to the ore carrier. There was sufficient time,” said Briesch._

Rushie


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## non descript (Nov 18, 2005)

Don't they just love getting it wrong....

They call it an _Ore Carrier_ (which it is not, it is a Capesize Bulk Carrier) and then in the same breath they say: _“The Anangel Splendour was carrying a full cargo of coal from Richards Bay to Europe..."_


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