A TUGBOAT and a US coastguard cutter both failed overnight to get a towline to a crippled car-carrier listing in heavy swells off South Africa’s southeast coast. Terry Taylor, representative for the port authority in Port Elizabeth, said an ocean-going salvage tugboat was on its way to aid the Panamanian-registered Modern Drive, and that three salvage experts were being flown to the vessel aboard a helicopter from Cape Town. “The engine failed and they had a fire on board, but the crew of 20 are all fine,” he said. The ship was some 75km off the coast on Saturday, but by Sunday had drifted to some nine kilometres off Port Elizabeth, he said. The Modern Drive had been en route from Fremantle, Australia, to Brazil. – AFP