Lee shores were long the bane of sailing ships. They are no better for motor vessels who lose their engines or drag their anchors.   Table Bay where the SELI 1 grounded is just such a lee shore and has been a hazard for ships for hundreds of years. An interesting perspective from Ports & Ships Maritime News – Table Bay as a lee shore – the grounding of the SELI 1 and other similar incidents.

While salvors have successfully unloaded 250 tons of fuel from the stricekn ship a legal battle is brewing between the owners of the SELI 1 and rival salvors Smit Salvage and Tsavliris, both of which claim to hold the official salvage contract – Clean-up goes ahead as salvors battle it out

A Cape Times report notes that the SA Maritime Authority (Samsa) has made it clear that fuel removal will continue until an oil spill was no longer a threat, regardless of the dispute.

Smit claims a verbal contract was made between the captains of Sela 1 and the Smit Amandla tug before midnight on Monday last week, as the ship was grounded.

But Tsavliris and the ship’s owners, TEB Maritime, signed a salvage agreement the next day. A Tsavliris salvage crew is on standby in Cape Town, but its lawyer, Martin Hall, said they had been blocked from the stricken vessel by Smit and Samsa despite the signed contract. The ship owners’ representative, Patrick Kuys, did not want to comment