‘Tug’ of war over grounded ship fails

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The Directorate-General of Shipping and a Sin­gapore-based shipping firm Smit International only managed to face their worst drubbing on Thur­sday as shoddy planning marred their first joint attempt to salvage groun­ded oil tanker Pra­th­iba Cauvery.

The polypropylene rope connecting the tanker and the tugboat Malaviya-21 brought from Kakinada Port snapped as the tugboat attempted to steam off into the Bay of Bengal around 3.30pm.

Officials involved in the salvage mission said the rope was first tied to the tanker’s bow and taken to the tugboat floating over 350 meters away from the former in the sea where it was deep enough to operate the tugboat. The rope snapped as the tugboat steamed off.

Shipping consultant R N Joe De Cruz faulted expe­rts for their misjudgment and said they should have had another tugboat pushing from behind or more power other than Mala­viya-21 to tug the tanker stuck in sand half nautical miles off Marina at Foreshore Estate.

A senior official attac­hed to DG, shipping, predicted high tide early tomorrow and told DC they would attempt salvaging the tanker again around 3.30am on Friday with Malaviya-21 and INS Ratna tugging the vessel simultaneously. “While pulling the rope parted. We will re-fix it and started afresh tomorrow morning with the second tug board,” the official said adding that there was no drain plug in the vessel. Meanwhile, the generator aboard the tanker was started to pump out water from inside the vessel and make it light enough to pull it into the sea. Officials also said they would drain out 10,000 tonnes of ballast water to make light the vessel.