Cape Town – An oil leak from an old navy tugboat, De Mist, at the Simon's Town harbour has been prevented from spreading further.
The 39-year-old decommissioned vessel sank on Friday in gusty winds of 50km/h. The 34m tugboat was blown over to the one side and began taking in water. No one was on board at the time.
A spokesperson for the SA Navy, Commander Greyling van den Berg, told the SABC they are still busy determining why the vessel sank.
“The oil spill has been contained and we are confident that there's not gonna be any further oil spills while we're doing the salvage operation.
"The place where the tug sank is not in the way of ship movements in the harbour, so we're having an opportunity to think this thing through and come up with a plan that will salvage this tug in the most economically viable way.”
According to the Navy, officials conducting rounds in the harbour noticed that the tug was tilted to one side.
Van den Berg said on Friday: “The SA Navy divers were called in and they arrived with equipment within the hour. Although they valiantly attempted to save the tug, the wind and sea conditions made it very difficult.”
De Mist was 39 years old and was decommissioned two-and-a-half years ago. The last time Tug De Mist sailed was in June 2015 for the arrival of the tug Imvubu, one of the tugs that replaced her.