The SS ''Wafra'' oil spill occurred on 27 February 1971, when SS ''Wafra'', an
oil tanker
An oil tanker, also known as a petroleum tanker, is a ship designed for the bulk transport of oil or its products. There are two basic types of oil tankers: crude tankers and product tankers. Crude tankers move large quantities of unrefined crud ...
, ran aground while under tow near
Cape Agulhas
Cape Agulhas (; pt, Cabo das Agulhas , "Cape of the Needles") is a rocky headland in Western Cape, South Africa.
It is the geographic southern tip of the African continent and the beginning of the dividing line between the Atlantic and Indian ...
, South Africa. Approximately 200,000 barrels of crude oil were leaked into the ocean. The larger part of the ship was refloated, towed out to sea, and then sunk by the
South African Air Force
"Through hardships to the stars"
, colours =
, colours_label =
, march =
, mascot =
, anniversaries =
, equipment ...
to prevent further oil contamination of the coastline.
Grounding and sinking
''Wafra'' left
Ras Tanura
Ras Tanura ( ar, رأس تنورة, Ra's Tannūrah, lit=cape oven, cape brazier, presumably due to the unusual heat prevalent at the cape that projects into the sea) is a city in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia located on a peninsula extend ...
in
Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the A ...
on 12 February 1971 bound for
Cape Town
Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...
, South Africa, with a cargo of (63,174 tonnes) of Arabian
crude oil
Petroleum, also known as crude oil, or simply oil, is a naturally occurring yellowish-black liquid mixture of mainly hydrocarbons, and is found in geological formations. The name ''petroleum'' covers both naturally occurring unprocessed crude ...
on board.
Half the cargo was owned by
Chevron Oil Sales Co., and the other half by
Texaco Export, Inc.
The ship was rounding the southern tip of Africa at 6:30 am on 27 February 1971 when the piping that brought seawater on board to cool her
steam turbine
A steam turbine is a machine that extracts thermal energy from pressurized steam and uses it to do mechanical work on a rotating output shaft. Its modern manifestation was invented by Charles Parsons in 1884. Fabrication of a modern steam turbin ...
failed. The engine room flooded, incapacitating the ship. She was taken under tow the following day by the Russian steam tanker ''Gdynia'', which – finding the task too difficult – handed the tow over to ''Pongola'' off
Cape Agulhas
Cape Agulhas (; pt, Cabo das Agulhas , "Cape of the Needles") is a rocky headland in Western Cape, South Africa.
It is the geographic southern tip of the African continent and the beginning of the dividing line between the Atlantic and Indian ...
, later the same day.
The tow cable subsequently broke, and ''Wafra'' grounded on a reef near Cape Agulhas at 5:30 pm on 28 February. All six of the port cargo tanks, as well as two of the six center tanks, were ruptured, resulting in approximately 26,000 tonnes of oil leaking at the grounding site, of which 6,000 tonnes washed up at Cape Agulhas. Another source estimated that nearly 14 million gallons of oil was lost in the event (approx 45500 tonnes).
A by oil spill resulted,
which affected a colony of 1200
African penguin
The African penguin (''Spheniscus demersus''), also known as Cape penguin or South African penguin, is a species of penguin confined to southern African waters. Like all extant penguins, it is flightless, with a streamlined body and wings stiff ...
s on Dyer Island near
Gansbaai
Gansbaai (Dutch/Afrikaans for "bay of geese," sometimes referred to as Gans Bay or Gangs Bay) is a fishing town and popular tourist destination in the Overberg District Municipality, Western Cape, South Africa. It is known for its dense populatio ...
. Beaches from Gansbaai to Cape Agulhas were oiled by the slick. American newspapers reported that the slick was up to long. Almost of detergent was sprayed onto the slick in efforts to prevent it washing ashore or harming marine life.
The ship was refloated and pulled off the reef on 8 March by the German tug
''Oceanic'', but started to break apart. To prevent further oil contamination of the coastline, the larger section was towed out to sea to the edge of the continental shelf (), leaving a oil slick in her wake. On 10 March 1971,
Buccaneer
Buccaneers were a kind of privateers or free sailors particular to the Caribbean Sea during the 17th and 18th centuries. First established on northern Hispaniola as early as 1625, their heyday was from Stuart Restoration, the Restoration in 16 ...
aircraft of the
South African Air Force
"Through hardships to the stars"
, colours =
, colours_label =
, march =
, mascot =
, anniversaries =
, equipment ...
attempted to sink her with
AS-30L
The AS-30 was an air-to-ground missile built by Nord Aviation. It was a precision attack weapon designed to be used against high-value targets such as bridges and bunkers. The AS-30 was essentially a larger version of the earlier AS-20 design, an ...
missiles, but succeeded only in starting a fire. The ship burned for two days before a
Shackleton aircraft was eventually able to sink it with
depth charge
A depth charge is an anti-submarine warfare (ASW) weapon. It is intended to destroy a submarine by being dropped into the water nearby and detonating, subjecting the target to a powerful and destructive Shock factor, hydraulic shock. Most depth ...
s in of water.
If ''Wafra'' had been a twin screw, two engine room ship, loss of an engine would most likely not have caused the loss of the whole ship.
At the time, the oil spill was in the top twenty most disastrous tanker spills on record.
Aftermath
In the wake of the accident, the South African Department of Transport realised that despite many Very Large Crude Carriers (VLCCs) using the Cape sea route each year, the authorities did not have ocean-going tugs that were able to assist them in distress, and to protect sensitive marine areas by breaking up oil spills with chemical dispersants. They therefore set up an oil spill prevention service known as ''Kuswag'' (Coastwatch) and commissioned two new salvage tugs, ''John Ross'' and ''Wolraad Woltemade''. The two tugs, with their engines, held the record as the world's largest salvage tugs.
The incident is featured in the 1975 book ''Supership'' by Noel Mostert.
See also
*
Oswego-Guardian/Texanita collision
*
Venpet-Venoil collision
*
Torrey Canyon oil spill
The ''Torrey Canyon'' oil spill was one of the world's most serious oil spills. The supertanker ran aground on rocks off the south-west coast of the United Kingdom in 1967, spilling an estimated 25–36 million gallons (94–164 million litres) o ...
References
Further reading
*
External links
Photos of beach contaminationPhotos of ship on fire
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wafra, SS
Shipwrecks of the South African Indian Ocean coast
Maritime incidents in 1971
Maritime incidents in South Africa
1971 in South Africa
Oil spills in South Africa
Environment of South Africa
1971 in the environment
Merchant ships sunk by aircraft
Ships sunk as targets
1955 ships
Wafra
Wafra ( ar, links=no, الوفرة) is the southernmost area in Kuwait, within the boundaries of the former Saudi–Kuwaiti neutral zone. It is part of Ahmadi Governorate, and is well known for its fertile soil and farms. It is parallel with t ...
Ships sunk by South African aircraft
1971 disasters in South Africa
1971 disasters in Africa