Government needs to get its gulls in a row to get shipping scene moving

STRETCHING back to my natbroek days, I have special memories of Mossel Bay. Later, well into my kortbroek years, we stayed there for a few weeks when, among my chores at the Methodist Manse – then a lovely old house adjacent to the church, but since demolished – I had the pleasant duty to feed the parson’s fowls, an exciting task for a young townboy.

I have written before about our watching Pretoria Castle come into the anchorage to await the lighters, towed out by the old steam tug William Messina. Good Hope, another old tug, seemed a derelict hulk at anchor close to the harbour. Both were replaced when the Italian-built Alwyn Vintcent arrived in the small port in the late 1950s.

My interest in Mossel Bay was heightened when a relative told me that six tankers were anchored off the port over the week-end. To establish their identity, I checked the automatic ship identification plot and, there they were. Among the vessels in the bay was Unicorn’s 16885-deadweight chemical tanker Kowie, one of several that the company built in China earlier this decade.

Also on the plot was the offshore supply vessel Greatship Manisha, inward from the FA Platform, some 74 nautical miles south-west of Mossel Bay. Owned by Greatship Global Offshore Services, she is on bareboat charter to Marine Crew Services (MCS) of Cape Town to service the company’s two-year contract with PetroSA. To my knowledge, she is the first commercial vessel to have been registered in Mossel Bay.

This is good news as the register is rather bare at present with only three other commercial ships flying the local flag, a far cry from the days when there were about 50 South African-registered ships, carrying over 1 000 seafarers with a similar number on leave or studying ashore.

Of the crew of 18 aboard Greatship Manisha, 10 are South Africans, and MCS plans to place four local cadets aboard in the next month, with the goal of having eight cadets and four trainee ratings aboard. Although small in number, this is a significant contribution to getting South Africans to sea.

But what will it take to move the government to get its gulls in a row to promote with gusto shipowning in South Africa? Many thought that Operation Phakisa would get the shipping scene under way, but sadly it seems to have dropped anchor.

Other countries have got it right. The tiny Marshall Islands now has the second-largest ships’ register, and even land-locked Mongolia – thousands of kilometres from the sea – has ships under its flag! Another model – encouraging shipowners to locate here but not necessarily to register their ships here – has been pursued very successfully by several countries.

One of these is Canada that is home to the Teekay Corporation with its huge fleet of tankers, LNG carriers and FPSOs, while Seaspan with scores of large containerships on its books, is also based in Canada. None of the ships belonging to either of these large companies is registered there, yet tax concessions available to shipowners make it worth their while for Teekay and Seaspan to operate out of Vancouver.

Another example of this practice is Denmark, where the world’s largest containership operator, Maersk, is located, but only a small portion of its fleet flies the Danish flag. Local shipowner, Grindrod, has flagged all but two of its bulkers and tankers abroad where better-informed and more dynamic governments provide attractive concessions to shipowners.

More South African-flagged vessels will mean that companies such as MCS will be able to help even more young locals embark on meaningful sea-going careers.