Two Survive Tuna Fishing Boat Ordealff

Two Simon’s Town fishermen whose boat sank off Cape Point before dawn on Wednesday were rescued after an eight-hour ordeal on a lifeboat when the crew of another fishing vessel, who had spotted their flares, came to their aid.

The tuna fishing vessel, the Shaka, sank about 20 nautical miles south-west of Cape Point at about 4am on Wednesday.

Two other crew members, including the vessel’s skipper, are believed to have drowned.

Cape Town’s Maritime Rescue Co-ordination Centre (MRCC) duty officer Mark Steed said the Shaka sank after its engine room had flooded.

”According to the two survivors, who were picked up by the Growler, the engine room flooded very suddenly. After that, the vessel went down quickly. The survivors said the other two crew members had drowned,” he said.

The two survivors were brought to shore at Hout Bay shortly after 1pm on Wednesday. Although cold and severely traumatized, they were otherwise unharmed.

The men, estimated to be in their early thirties, received trauma counseling and were reunited with their relatives at the National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) base in Hout Bay on Wednesday afternoon.

The relatives of the two missing crew members were also counseled as they waited for news.

A search for the missing crew members, involving NSRI boats and military aircraft, continued for the rest of the day.

The MRCC had called in the help of the NSRI Air Sea Rescue Unit to search for and recover the Shaka.

A Dakota aircraft from the airforce’s 35 Squadron and an Oryx helicopter from 22 Squadron also assisted in the search.

The NSRI Air Sea Rescue Unit commander, Bruce Bodmer, said a large amount of debris including a life-ring was recovered while searching for the bodies. “We decided to return after about two hours (after 1pm),” he said.

NSRI spokesperson Craig Lambinon said the “40-foot sport fishing vessel” had been reported overdue at 11am and the NSRI had immediately launched lifeboats from Hout Bay and Simon’s Town.

At noon another fishing vessel, the Growler, that had spotted the flares, picked up the two men floating in the life raft. They did not have life jackets.

Hout Bay coxswain Piet van der Merwe said the vessel had launched on Monday and was due to return to shore on Tuesday. The crew members’ relatives became concerned when they had not returned by the following afternoon, he said.

Van der Merwe said the survivors did not want to be interviewed as they were “severely traumatized”. The wife of one of the survivors and the sister of the other, who were with them, also did not want to speak to the media.

”As you can imagine it is very difficult for the family of the survivors,” he said.

Conditions were ideal for a search on Wednesday as the sea was calm and flat and there was very little wind, he said.