The captain of the Ouro do Brasil will be questioned on Tuesday about a collision between his ship and a fishing trawler that has left 14 fishermen missing at sea.
The South African Maritime Safety Authority’s investigating officer Captain Nigel Campbell will interview the master of the Liberian-flagged juice transporter to establish details of the collision.
”The ship was detained on Sunday in order for us to carry out a preliminary inquiry,” said Campbell, a fishing-vessel safety officer.
A number of people will be interviewed during the inquiry, including the officer on watch at the time of the collision.
The Ouro do Brasil and the Lindsay, a hake trawler, collided off the coast near Port Elizabeth early on Sunday morning. One crew member, Johan Ehlers, who had been smoking a cigarette on deck after phoning his wife, fell into the sea after the collision.
The ship stopped, the alarm was raised and a massive rescue operation, including the National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) and ships and trawlers in the area, began.
The first crewman was rescued by the Ouro do Brasil. The trawler’s skipper, Paul Landers, was sucked out of his cabin and clung to debris until being rescued shortly afterwards by the Lindsay‘s sister trawler, the Lincoln.
The two survivors from the trawler will also be interviewed once they are well enough.
Campbell said that once the enquiry is completed, the information will be forwarded to the executive of the South African Maritime Safety Authority, who will make recommendations to the ministry of transport.
These could include a marine court of inquiry, but such a court has limited powers.
If the vessel at fault is a South African certificate holder, the certificate can be suspended. If the inquiry finds against a foreign-flagged vessel, the court can only forward recommendations to the country in which that vessel is registered.
Once the inquiry is over, the Ouro do Brasil, currently empty, will be allowed to continue its journey to Brazil to load.
”They will not be unduly detained,” Campbell said.
Meanwhile, the remaining 14 crew members, including three men from one family, are still missing at sea after the NSRI called off the search, having done ”everything possible”.
A colleague at the Viking Inshore Fishing company in Mossel Bay said a prayer service will be held for the distraught families at Mossel Bay’s Apostoliese Geloofsending church in D’Almeida on Thursday.
A man who fell off another trawler, the Emmanuel, near St Francis Bay on Monday is also still missing, the NSRI’s Craig Lambinon said. — Sapa