Wafra
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The Wafra was a Liberian oil tanker with a measurement of around 36,697 GRT . On March 1, 1971, he stranded on the South African Cape of Needles and about 27,000 to 65,000 tons of crude oil spilled into the sea.
history
Ship and cargo
The ship was delivered by Mitsubishi in Nagasaki in 1956 with a measurement of 27,400 GRT and brought to a size of 36,697 GRT in August 1970.
The turbine tanker belonged to Getty Tankers Limited at the time of the accident and was operated on a long-term charter from Getty Oil Corporation. Getty Oil, in turn, rented the tanker to the United Steamship Corporation (United) on April 7, 1970 for five years on a time charter. United gave the ship to Overseas Tankship Corp. for consecutive voyages within a one-year subcharter . (Overseas) continue. In January 1971, Overseas rented the Wafra to Chevron in a verbally negotiated subcharter to move a full load of crude oil from Ra's Tanura to Cape Town. Chevron made an oral appointment with Texaco on a half Chevron / Texaco charter. The ship went out with an oil charge to half of Chevron Oil Sales Co. and the other half Texaco Export, Inc. was one.
The stranding
The ship suffered on February 27, 1971 at 06:30 am at the position 35 ° 0 ' S , 20 ° 2' O before the Cape Agulhas (Cape Agulhas) a fraction of a raw water line, and a seawater pump. Its engine room then ran full of water, rendering it unable to maneuver. The passing Soviet turbine tanker Gdynia was the first to be asked for towing assistance. He rejected this as too complicated, but later that day brought a tow line to the South African motor ship Pongola, which was about seven nautical miles from Cape Agulhas. The crew of the Wafra except for the captain and a helmsman left the ship before the tanker was towed.
After this towing connection was broken, no new towing connection could be established, whereupon the Wafra drifted at 5:30 a.m. on March 1st onto the Agulha Reef, located about five nautical miles off the Cape. As a result of the soil damage occurring there, both the six port cargo tanks and the six middle cargo tanks were damaged and part of the cargo consisting of crude oil of the "Arabia crude" type began to flow into the sea.
Salvage and sinking
The Hamburg Bugsier-, Reederei- und Bergungsgesellschaft , whose salvage tug Oceanic was at its station in Durban, needed several days before they could negotiate a salvage contract with the South African government and the shipping company as well as the tanker's insurance company with fixed daily rates while keeping all responsibilities free. On March 8, the Oceanic succeeded in pulling the wrecked ship from the reef.
In order to rule out further pollution of the coast, the tanker was towed around 200 nautical miles into the open sea and there on March 12th by targeted rocket fire by fighter jets of the South African Air Force at the position 36 ° 57 ′ S , 20 ° 42 ′ E sunk. A helicopter followed the tow and sprayed solvent on the leaked oil to prevent it from spreading. The Oceanic shipping company later received a salary of DM 570,000 for the eight-day work.
consequences
Around 27,000 tons of crude oil ended up straight into the sea, around half after being stranded and the rest on the towing journey to the dumping site. The oil formed a film of oil about 30 miles long and five miles wide. Around 6000 tons of oil polluted the coastal strip between Cape Agulhas and the Struisbaai . More than 1216 penguins were oily and mostly died. However, a protective fence prevented the death of a large number of the penguins on Dyer Island .
The owners of the oil shipment brought compensation proceedings against the owners and operators of the Wafra before the United States Court of Appeals. This began on December 12, 1977 in the second instance and was decided on March 2, 1978.
literature
- Lloyd's Register of Ships 1970/71 , Lloyd's Register of Shipping, London, 1970
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Cape Agulhas, South Africa Incident Summary ( Memento of the original from June 10, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Incident News, accessed December 23, 2011.
- ↑ Jan Mordhorst: Schlepper: A book about tug shipping in the Federal Republic of Germany , Verlag Maritim Hamburg, 1988, ISBN 3-9801260-1-3 , p. 17
- ↑ Page of the Avian Demography Unit (English) ( Memento of the original from December 23, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Page of the SANCCOB (English)
- ↑ Court application (English) ( Memento of the original from May 6, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
