Last-minute efforts were being made late on Wednesday night to save the holidays of hundreds of passengers looking forward to a cruise on the ship Olympia Countess after papers were filed seeking the ship's detention in Durban harbour.
Olympia Countess returns this morning from a New Year cruise to Mauritius and the Indian Ocean islands. It was due to sail later in the day on another cruise to Barra Lodge in Northern Mozambique.
However, several creditors have brought orders of arrest in the Durban High Court against the ship and its Greek owners, Royal Olympic Cruises. Other creditors are lining up to file claims in the event of the ship being arrested.
Late on Wednesday night lawyers representing the respective parties were hard at work trying to find a solution before the ship's arrival and the serving of the papers. Krish Reddy of Shepstone & Wylie declined to give any details other than to confirm the arrest order. The Mercury understands the main dispute concerns a mortgage held on two other ships owned by subsidiaries of Royal Olympic Cruises.
Alan Foggitt, Managing Director of Starlight Cruises, which has chartered the ship for the South African summer, said he hoped the remainder of the cruise season would not have to be cancelled. He said Starlight had only chartered the ship and was not involved with the financial problems faced by its owners. In the event of Olympia Countess being arrested, he gave an assurance that those who had paid for cruises in advance would be fully reimbursed.
He said Starlight had lodged the full price of the charter with a British bank and said that passengers' money was fully protected.
"We've made inquiries about chartering another ship but it is probably too late to bring out another," he said.
Representatives of the International Transport Federation would also be going on board the ship this morning to investigate claims from several of the Greek crew that they have not been paid for several months. Earlier, the ITF interceded on behalf of a Filipino crew over a dispute involving double employment agreements. The matter was resolved when the Filipinos were paid outstanding salaries and repatriated.
The future for cruise operator Royal Olympic Cruises is beginning to look bleaker by the day, with the company struggling to avoid liquidation of its assets.
Two of the company's latest cruise ships, Olympia Voyager and Olympia Explorer, have already been detained in terms of Chapter 11 bankruptcy laws in the United States and are restricted to US waters.
German banks that are owed US $230 million (R2- billion) in mortgages on the two ships are seeking to have them arrested should they move to a non-US port.
A third ROC cruise ship, the Triton, is also in the news. During a New Year cruise in the Mediterranean, passengers who had intended seeing in the New Year in style were forced to transfer from the cruise ship to a car ferry in mid-cruise, because the Triton faced arrest if it called at Athens, the next port of call. Instead they were taken to Venice for a five-hour bus ride to Genoa to catch their flights home.
Several directors of ROC resigned last week and share prices for ROC have plummeted. ROC has recorded losses of $50-million (R320-million) for the past two years.
- Starlight offers many cruises out of Durban. Tickets were sold out for the Christmas cruise to Madagascar and tickets are sold out for a trip to Portugal at the end of this month.