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EAST LONDON (South
Africa) — "Her back broke on Tuesday because she has taken
too much strain," said Dave Main, spokesperson for Smit Marine
salvage company. He was speaking about the ship, that is.
All hands on board (the 6 Angolan and 3 Ukrainian
crew members) had already been air-lifted to safety by an air force
helicopter. But all paws on
board (1 Border Collie) were left behind, according to last week's report by the
South African Press
Association.
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The TMP Sagittarius, a 2,500-ton cargo ship,
was "taking in water through her ballast tanks and listing
badly," according to the National Ports Authority in East London,
July 18, 2002. Nine crew members and one dog held fast at Leaches
Bay, two miles off
the entrance to the harbor, where winds were reported
gusting up to 36 knots with 5-to-8-meter swells at the harbor mouth, making
rescue conditions difficult. Defence Force spokesperson,
Lieutenant-Colonel Piet Paxton, praised the helicopter pilot, saying:
"He did an excellent job." That much is for sure. The
only problem is that they forgot about the dog.
(Photo: Alan Eason / The
Dispatch)
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"Sagi", the 16-month-old sea dog, would have to wait for the
salvage crew to find him the next day, wandering around on his lonely ship. His rescuer was warrant officer Jannie Engelbrecht of the navy
diving unit in Durban, who immediately had the terrified mutt transferred to the SPCA in
East London. Editor's note: Whoa... déjà
vu. Remember the dog on the Insiko?
The vessel itself, Portuguese cargo carrier TMP Sagittarius, broke
apart on the rocks two miles off shore after sustaining heavy damage from gale-force winds and spring tide waves. National Ports Authority
spokesperson Terry Taylor reported that the ship literally split in two:
"The deck plating has cracked right across the sides of the hull on
both the port and starboard sides."
Dog Day Afternoon
On July 18, the Sagittarius ran aground on a rocky outcrop at Leaches
Bay, Eastern Cape while carrying a load of 2½ thousand tons of wet maize
from Durban bound for Angola. At the same time, a second ship, the
fuel-tanker Maltese-Nino, ran aground about 20 nautical miles
south-west of Coffee Bay.
Add to the confusion the looming threat of a 7,700 ton oil spill from
the damaged hull of the Maltese-Nino, as  well
as a heart attack suffered by the ship's captain, and
you've got yourself one heck of a crisis in the Indian Ocean.
(Image: Alan Eason / The
Dispatch)
With impending environmental disasters, heart attacks and 8-meter waves, perhaps it's understandable that a little,
40lb. black dog could be overlooked. But not for long. As soon
as news of the rescued "sea dog" reached the mainland, Sagi
(nicknamed after the cargo ship) became a canine celebrity.
"You won't believe the number of telephone calls we have received
from people wanting Sagi," said SPCA inspector Marie Eekhout.
She added that the pooch has been in good health since his arrival at the shelter last
month, just a little thin and very scared, confused and
bewildered.
"He misses his owner," she told reporters last week.
But in a strange turn of
events, the dog's guardian did not want his pooch to be taken back to his native land Angola, where conditions are
reportedly very harsh for
animals. The guardian instead pleaded with South Africans to accommodate
the dog.
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 This
presented a problem. Although
the Eastern Cape SPCA has been flooded with calls from families wishing to
adopt the Collie, it has been a big challenge to find a suitable home that
meets the dog's interesting requirements...
1. Free to a
Good Boat
One of the first things Sagi's
rescuers noticed when they got him to dry land was that he was walking
with an unusual gait. They soon realized that
this was because he had spent his entire life on a ship, sailing the
high seas between Angola and Durban.
"He's not a
landlubber," said Ms. Eekhout last week. "He's trying to settle his
sea legs on terra firma [but] if we can get him a home on a ship, that
would be first prize. Whether it is possible, I don't know."
Sagi is still
wobbly on dry land.
"What's all this hard stuff under my paws? You mean to tell me
that the
Earth is not made out of water?"
(Photo: News24)
2. Fala
português?
Other challenges also came to
light: "He doesn't know anything about other animals and he certainly
doesn't speak English," said Ms. Eekhout. He only responds to
Portuguese, they learned. Nonetheless,
the SPCA announced today that a home had been found. Appropriately
enough, Sagi's saga has come full circle to the people responsible for
saving his life last month: the navy diving school in Durban. There,
he may even recognize the familiar face of Officer Engelbrecht who had
rescued him last month. The SPCA
feels that's where he will probably be most at home.
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