Massive Insurance Scam- Ship Parking Fail

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When I first saw this I thought, poor guy. All he wanted to do is get his old ship to the scrap yard to get the final cash-in. And now look what happened.

However…

It seems insurance scams have no bounds in mass. Despite the valiant efforts by our helpful locals, the crew made sure that the ship got grounded.

From the article;

On Monday last week the Phoenix reported that his ship was dragging its sole remaining anchor – the other had been lost in a similar incident earlier off the Eastern Cape coast – and that the ship was being washed towards the coast.
The Phoenix meanwhile had to be instructed by the salvage tug Smit Amandla to pay out more anchor chain to counter the ship’s drift – a basic measure that should have been the first step in saving the ship.
According to Smit Amandla Marine and Samsa, the tug fired eight rocket lines to the Phoenix in attempting to connect a tow. Six were later found aboard the tanker, but none had been used to secure a tow. Similarly, two messenger lines were put aboard the ship to allow the crew to pull the towing gear on board.
The Phoenix reported that the messenger rope had “slipped off” the drum end of the winch on both occasions. Samsa says that various maritime experts had been consulted and none could recall that happening in the past.

www.themercury.co.za...

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Above Image: Salvage crews still pumping out the 400 tons of fuel and apparently also looking for a stowaway after some of the medical supplies were discovered stolen.

Yesterday a bid to refloat the Phoenix was going well until a cable connecting the salvage tug to the beached ship snapped. The ship had moved away from the rocks for a short time before lodging itself back to its original position. Further attempts will be made.

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Above Image: This is how they left it after the attempt to tug it back to sea. Some would say it was the tide’s fault but at the end of the day they went in the wrong direction.

I don’t know how many people here on ATS are cool with ships but I thought it was interesting to share. I like ships, they float my boat. This one is huge, up close and has become quite the tourist attraction amongst the local folk. # like this just doesn’t happen everyday. That being said, its guys like these who give the South African coastline a bad name. First that guy from England and now this…

**Duplicate Post**

Very cool post- first for the wild pics and second for the topic.

Never thought about insurance fraud on ships but it's got to be a hellacious payout!

reply to post by Monkeygod333


Massive insurance scam? I don't think so. I think SAMSA and Smit Salvage are trying to make it look like a insurance scam to cover there own behinds. The ship is a rustbucket being taken to the Indian scrapyards to be sold and I don't think the owners would have gotten much if anything from an insurance claim. The ship is probably worth more as scrap than as an insurance claim. Smit has a government contract to prevent just this sort of thing from happening. When ships go aground they leak oil, polluting beaches, killing marine life and usually staying there forever, marring the coastline for a long time to come. What it looks like to me is that even though they are being paid by the government to perform this service, Smit were haggling salvage fees with the owners to squeeze some more juice out of the situation. Unethical if you ask me. Salvage companies provide a service but sometimes they are nothing more than tow-truck operators on water. Vultures trying to make a buck off someone else's misfortune. What SAMSA should have done was instruct the tug Smit Amandla to keep the disabled ship a safe distance from the coast. Standard practice and the sensible thing to do. Bad decisions and negligence by SAMSA and underhanded tactics by Smit resulting in a marine disaster. Who's going to pay for the cleaning up this mess? Why the South African taxpayer, of course.