Quick thinking and bravery prevented deadly cargo becoming toxic situation
FIFTEEN years ago this week, the northern KwaZulu-Natal coast witnessed a maritime accident that could have had more serious implications than it did, thanks to the carefully-planned cargo salvage operation.
The laden ro-ro (roll-on/roll-off) vessel Jolly Rubino sailed from Durban for the Mediterranean. Among the containers on deck were several loaded with drums containing some of those nasties that seafarers dread to see on a cargo manifest yet are needed by the world’s chemical plants.
A fire began on board, quickly spreading through the chemical cargo. Fearing for their lives as toxic smoke began to envelop the vessel, the crew rightly abandoned ship. A small tug arrived from Durban but could not connect as there was no one aboard to make a towing line fast, and, understandably, salvage crews were also reluctant to board because of the smoke and intense heat from the fire.
Jolly Rubino drifted ashore and cracked almost immediately, leaking fuel oil into the sea. Fortunately for the environment, a coastal drift carried the leaking oil past a small promontory and it dissipated in the choppy waters.
The casualty had grounded on one of the most environmentally sensitive parts of the coast, between the St Lucia estuary and Sodwana Bay, where turtles lay their eggs along the backshore.
As vehicular access to the beach was difficult, the Smit salvage team and their equipment were brought in by helicopter.
The priority was to remove the oil from the wreck, and then the remains of those toxic chemicals. Neither task was easy, given the sensitive nature of the coastline, the sharp list of the ship that made working aboard very difficult, and the fact that fire had destroyed the special chemical markings on the drums.
Salvage personnel had no idea what they were working with and had to proceed extremely cautiously.
Some of the cargo was lowered over the seaward side to a small launch that managed to come alongside.
To facilitate this process, part of the ship’s gunwale was cut away, and fortunately so. A helicopter bringing a work team to the ship crashed on to the deck and caught fire. The occupants scrambled to safety via the aircraft’s door – that, miraculously, was next to the gap in the gunwale. Had that gap not been cut, they would have been trapped inside the burning fuselage.
Once the work had been completed – and it took weeks – explosives were planted in the wreck and a dramatic, deliberate explosion reduced a once fine ship to an artificial reef for the abundant marine life in the area.
Apart from the ro-ro vehicle carriers that frequently load export cars in Port Elizabeth, East London and Durban, South African ports see few ro-ro ships these days, unlike the 1980s when large, sophisticated Swedish and French ro-ros were on the regular South Africa-Europe trade, and when Unicorn’s ro-ro ships ran interesting coastwise services involving containerised cargo, road-trailer haulage and vehicles. On their European service, MACS later introduced two multipurpose ships with ro-ro capacity.
Having huge stern ramps that required heavy machinery to lower and raise their ramps, those Swedish and French ships were impressive.
Complementing the container ships on the European trade, these vessels had capacity for large or heavy items that could be rolled on or off via the ramps. Occasionally they went as far as Beira to deliver power station equipment, pumps, mining machinery and railway locomotives, besides their usual containerised and conventional cargoes.
Yet, with few thwartships bulkheads, ro-ro ships are prone to flooding after collisions, or to fires sweeping through their cargo decks – as happened in the case of Jolly Rubino.