Substantial damage, estimated at millions of Namibian Dollars, were incurred when two deep sea trawler vessels of Benguela Fishing, the Linette and Lisinda, collided in the vicinity of Pelican Point on Monday evening at sunset. It also emerged that the incident had not been reported to the relevant authorities. Maritime law requires that an accident at sea must be reported to the Directorate of Maritime Affairs by those involved, immediately after it occurred.
No distress signals were apparently sent despite the fact that the Lynette, which is the largest and oldest of the two vessels, sustained a huge tear in her bow.
According to a crew member on the Linette there was sudden and un-expected loud bang. “It sounded like an explosion and the impact of the collision caught us completely by surprise and threw many of us off balance.
"I ran onto the deck and saw another fishing vessel without any lights, and realised that it had crashed into us. We did not have our nets in the water and were sailing at a speed of approximately 10.5 knots when the incident occurred. What happened is simply inexplicable.”
Chief Inspector John Shimbelenga of the Directorate of Sea Fisheries confirmed that no distress signals were received from the vessels involved in the incident and that his office was not aware of it. “In case of an accident at sea the relevant stakeholders should be notified,” he commented.
Mr Tim Eiman at the Namport Safety and Health division pointed out that Port Control should have been notified immediately. “The plan of action depends on the circumstances. We determine if any lives are in danger, if the boats are in danger of sinking, if there is a possibility of pollution and then react accordingly’” he said.
Benguella Fishing General Manager, Mr Andries Olivier confirmed the incident and labelled it a very unfortunate event. “This is a very unfortunate first in the history of the company. We really do not know how this could have happened. We are relieved that no lives were lost and the company is in the process off assessing the damage,” he said.
Both boats returned to the harbour and were moored at the Benguela Jetty.
According to published reports, the whitefish vessels (Hake & Monk) Lisinda (IMO number is 7303114) with Pieter Verkuil as its skipper was coming in from the fishing grounds and the Lynette (Call sign V-5 LA) with Francois Bouman as its skipper was on its way out to the fishing grounds when the two boats rammed head on into each other.
No injuries or casualties were recorded amongst the approximately 32 crew members, 16 on board of each vessel.
The Lisinda was built in 1973 in Netherland. Both vessels are registered in Namibia and have a tonnage capacity of approximately 220 tonnes.
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