Tug boats and health and safety at sea

With reference to the letter by Tug Malta's chairman John E. Sullivan (February 13), I appreciate that he respects my opinion but I am writing for the last time about this too because this is not a political issue. What concerns me is the health and safety of people working at sea.

With reply to his questions I can give my answers:

1) Whether it is a private investment or not, spending so many years at sea will make me more cautious of what goes on in our territorial or outside territorial waters when issues arise in health and safety matters that involves also lives at sea.

2) As a maritime researcher, I am involved in all marine operations and constantly listen to the VHF transmissions of all vessels passing by/entering our harbours. All conversations are recorded by the authority concerned. I would like to emphasise that no third parties were involved.

May I remind all that when the 1950-built and 1985-converted, 50-metre yacht Spalmatori caught fire while anchored at Mellieħa Bay on August 26, 1993 at 5.50 a.m., apart from the Malta Police Fire Brigade, trailer pumps on AFM patrol craft, one of which had checked the yacht a few hours before catching fire, a 60.8 metre anchor handling tug/supply ship Rose, owned by Mituana Shipping Ltd, Malta and the 34.8 metre tug Smit Floriana, owned by Smit Tak Valletta Co. Ltd, Malta (a subsidiary of one of the largest salvage companies in the world) responded to the casualty but were ordered by the authorities not to interfere because Tug Malta had the monopoly and the tug Ċetta was deployed at about 11 a.m.

Also, on July 27, 1995 when the anchor handling tug/supply vessel British Magnus caught fire while berthed at Pinto 1 wharf, Tug Malta deployed two tugs - Ċetta and Feliċa - to assist but were given orders not to interfere because the Malta Police Fire Brigade and the SAG rescue team were involved.

When the jack up rig West Titania was offloaded from the semi-submersible Gavea Lifter at St Paul's Bay on July 17, 2007, the rig superintendent wished to have a farewell by the tugs concerned - Feliċa, Lieni, Pawlina and Sea Salvor - but only Sea Salvor responded to the water salute because other tugs weren't prepared, although they had fire-fighting monitors since we had one tug that pump was undergoing maintenance and others were used for different reason. What if a fire occurred?

What I wanted to highlight when I asked: What use of new tug? is: Are we well prepared for such emergencies? Are they properly manned at all times? Why do they take hours to leave from the berth? People at sea are human beings like us and have families like us and, unfortunately, our negligence can have an adverse effect on the lives of these people. Sometimes the truth hurts more than one expects.