Outstanding claims keep Orient Alliance under arrest

RAY SMUTS
THE ARRESTED bulk carrier Orient Alliance remained firmly ‘manacled’ off Cape Town on Monday (June 12) as lawyers continued their endeavours to bring closure to more than 37 claims for monies allegedly owed for chandlery suppliers. The claims, said to run into the millions, apply not only to the Orient Alliance but the 20-year-old Orient Brilliance (146 352dwt), another vessel operated by John Koo’s Orient Steamship. The ‘Brilliance’ is however not under arrest but rather drydocked in China after being holed four times while departing San Nicholas, Peru, at the end of August 2005. This costly mishap left Orient Steamship with a revenue shortfall of US$2.5 million as there was apparently no loss-of-hire insurance. (FTW May 26, 2006) The Orient Alliance, arrested on May 12 and May 16 by Cape Town’s deputy sheriff, Johan Engelbrecht, lies at a point about eight miles west of Green Point on the Atlantic Seaboard, constantly monitored by port control’s vessel tracking system atop National Ports Authority House. It emerged last week that French finance house Calyon had instructed law firm Norton Rose to appoint a Cape Town company, Bowman Gilfillan, to initiate negotiations with those representing the claimants. Engelbrecht, expressing the hope the matter may be speedily resolved, confirmed he was approached by Bowman Gilfillan on sheriff’s costs relating to the arrest and detention of the Orient Alliance but declined to mention the amount involved. Law firms representing both sides of the spectrum, Bowman Gilfillan on behalf of Calyon, and Deneys Reitz Attorneys for the third party suppliers, remain tight-lipped about the current state of play. The 152 056dwt capesize Orient Alliance, built in 1990, was on a voyage from Australia to Britain, via South Africa, laden with a cargo of iron ore at the time of her two arrests, effected by Engelbrecht transported by motor launch and helicopter.