'Welcome to the Cape of Storms,' says salvage master Rudolph Punt, a member of the team trying to prevent further oil spills from the shipwrecked MV Ultra Galaxy on the West Coast.

While waiting to be lifted by a helicopter and lowered aboard the MV Ultra Galaxy shipwreck to conduct assessments, salvage master Rudolph Punt from Smit Salvage explained the precarious situation they had faced for almost a month.

"You are standing on the side of a ship that is leaning over 115 degrees. It's not a stable platform so the pilot puts you down in the best possible position they can find.

"Once we establish that it is safe underfoot and it doesn't feel like it's busy falling apart, we will disconnect from the helicopter and connect to the safety lines that we pre-rigged onboard the vessel to make sure that we don't fall, and should we fall, that we don't slide off the wreck," he said.

advertisementDon't want to see this? Remove adsOn Friday, 2 August Daily Maverick visited the site of the MV Ultra Galaxy shipwreck where most of the 189.99m long, 32.26m wide vessel was located, flanked by Eskom's Sere Wind Farm and the MSR Tormin Mine, a mineral sands operation.

The vessel, initially carrying an estimated 500 tonnes of oil, has broken apart off the West Coast near the coastal towns of Papendorp, Doring Bay and...