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namib times SERVING THE COASTAL COMMUNITY SINCE 1958 NO 6549 FRIDAY 29 APRIL 2016 Tel: +264 64 - 205854 / +264 64 - 461866 /Fax: +264 64 - 204813 / 064 - 461824 / Website: www.namibtimes.net
Costa Concordia salvage Swimmer in trouble inside master visits Walvis Bay at Mole - warning over Tiger
rough winter seas Erwin Leuschner
A resident of Swakopmund landed in trouble on Tuesday evening when he and a friend decided to go for a late after-noon swim at the Swakopmund Mole. While the friend managed to swim safely to shore, the other person only just managed to swim to the wooden platform in the centre where he was “stranded.”
Pic: abcnews.go.com Floris Steenkamp The world-renowned ship salvage expert, Captain Nicholas Sloan, visited Walvis Bay this week where namib times had the opportunity to interview him over his most famous ship salvage project – raising the sunken passenger liner Costa Concordia from its watery grave on Isola del Giglio where it capsized and sank on 13 January 2012 after striking an underwater rock formation. Thirty-two people lost sibilities of salvaging ners. Sloane felt the their lives in the disas- the wreck,” Sloane ex- pressure even more as ter which is also re- plained this week when he merely arrived in garded as one of the namib times inter- Rome for pre-discusbiggest ship disasters viewed him at the home sions of the salvage in maritime history of Namibian salvage and he was appointed where so many people expert Mr Paul van der team leader there and had to be safely evacu- Merwe of Walvis Bay then of a salvage opeated. It carried 4 252 Diving. ration where they people when Captain “Of eight consortiums would apply a concept Francesco Schettino of salvagers our group that was only designed allowed the ship to de- was the only who said through computer moviate from its designa- we can salvage Costa delling and never acted route and pass C o n c o r d i a i n o n e tually tested in pracdangerously close to piece,” said Sloane. It tise. the island – history was a complicated mat- Time was of the eswould remind for a ter as with the scant in- sence. Costa Concorlong time to come the formation available dia was virtually baprice at which this de- they had to develop a lancing on the edge of cision came both in plan for the salvage, an underwater cliff and human life, the cost to explained Sloane. Over the fact that the scene clear the disaster and the extreme pressure he of the sinking was for Schettino criminally and his team had at the all practical reasons a charged for negligen- time, Sloane admitted crime scene where ce. there was much at divers would have very “I was in Australia at stake. Seventeen peo- limited ac-cess, the the time and received a ple started to engineer a team pressed forward. call from Titan Marine plan for the salvage – a As new un-derwater stating I have to report week later they were i n f o r m a t i o n w a s in Rome over pos- reduced to ten as plan- Continues on page 2
“Luckily people at the Strand Hotel noticed that something was abnormal,” Adri Goosen, Swakopmund's Fire Chief, explained to namib times. He was notified about the situation when the sun had just set and it was dusk. The Sea Rescue Institute of Namibia's (SRIN) station 1 was notified. By the time the rescue operation began, it was already dark. Armed with torches SRIN-members made their way to the platform, where they rescued the stranded swimmer and brought him safely to the beach. “He looked fine, but he was under severe shock when he was safe,” Goosen continued. The man did not speak and was taken to hospital for further observation by Eagle Christian Ambulance Service. Goosen calls on the public to be extremely cautious when swimming in the ocean, even when it is in perceivable safe waters like the Mole-basin. “People should refrain from swimming when it is getting dark or when the swell is very strong like it was,” he warned. Due to a strong storm around the Cape of Good Hope and the fact that it was full moon a few days ago, the swell of the Atlantic Ocean along Namibia's entire West Coast was extremely high over the weekend and again on Tuesday and Wednesday this week. Waves reached a height of up to four metres in some instances.
Monday a public holiday
Reef flooded Page 3
The Wreck back in business
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Walvis Municipality committed to land process
Floris Steenkamp Workers of several companies at the coast lodged inquiries to namib times this week with a question whether this coming Monday (2 May) is a public holiday. Namibia with the rest of the world commemorate Workers Day on Sunday 1 May. The question to this answer is yes. Monday 2 May is a public holiday, as the Act on Public Holidays (Act 26 of 1990) stipulates under Section 1 (2) of the Act that should a public holiday fall on a Sunday, the next Monday will also be a public holiday. A schedule to the Act determines Namibia has a total of twelve public holidays per annum, three of which will fall in short sequence next week: starting with Sunday/Monday (Workers Day), followed by Cassinga Day on Wednesday 4 May and Ascension Day on 5 May. Employers are urged to consult the Labour Act 2007 to determine the rights and duties of both the Employer and Employee over public holidays. This include remuneration for work conducted on public holidays and specifically in the case of Sunday and Workers Day that coincides.
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