AAGM: Death At Sea Bears All the Intrigue of a Greek Tragedy.

(From Cape Argus (South Africa): AAGM)

Byline: Henri Du Plessis

The presence of tragedy at sea is tangible in Table Bay Harbour this week, as local repairmen begin work on the US-owned supply vessel Oil Trader.

In a world where an oversight can cost lives, the stress of responsibility became too much for an experienced mariner who took his own life rather than live with the consequences of a mistake he had taken on as his own.

The dead man was the chief officer of the Oil Trader, a platform supply vessel of the US company Tidewater Marine, operating among the giant oil platforms in oil fields.

One night near the end of June, the Oil Trader was steaming from one platform to another during a delivery.

Inexplicably, she smashed into the support beams of the giant platform she was approaching near Pointe Noire, Congo, forcing her bows in under the giant legs and crushing her forward accommodation against the platform's huge support struts.