The Jolly Rubino, the burning RO-RO (Roll-on, Roll-off) ship stuck on a sandbank off the ecologically sensitive St Lucia wetland and estuary in KwaZulu-Natal, is showing signs off breaking up, a KZN Wildlife official said.
Jeff Gaisford said KZN Wildlife officers as well as Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism officials had formed a task team to co-ordinate the combating of the expected pollution that would follow the break-up of the vessel.
An oil slick about a kilometre long had already formed in the vicinity of the wreck.
The ship ran aground on Thursday afternoon and was now 300m offshore, about 2km north of the Cape St Lucia lighthouse.
She has approximately 1100 tons of fuel oil and 225 tons of gas oil on board in addition to unspecified Class 3 hazardous cargo.
A representative for the Richard’s Bay Port Master said ”Class 3” was a description for flammable liquid — a category which included petroleum and many other chemicals.
Smit Marine, which has been contracted to salvage the vessel was by Friday still not able to put any salvage crew aboard due to the smoke, flames and high temperature associated with the fire that broke out in the ship’s engine room on Tuesday.
The deck temperature was measured at 300C.
The 190-metre, 31 262-ton ship has been at the mercy of the wind and currents since Tuesday night when its crew abandoned it after an engine room fire spread beyond their control.
Her crew was rescued by a Portnet helicopter operating from Richard’s Bay on Tuesday night.
The salvage tug Wolraad Woltemade has arrived in the area of the grounding and the anchor handler Pentow Service was still on site and monitoring the situation.
Also on site was the oil pollution abatement vessel Kuswag I. – Sapa