Authorities said that salvage operations were in full gear on Thursday, to prevent an oil spill or pollution along South Africa’s west coast due to a grounded general cargo ship.

The Panama flagged "Ultra Galaxy", which started to list badly, ran aground late Tuesday night near Doring Bay (about 300 km north-east of Cape Town). The 18-strong Filipino crew abandoned the ship while it was still at sea, and fears have been raised about an oil spill.

Tebogo Ramatjie is a spokesperson of the South African Maritime Safety Authority.

Authorities said that the entire crew was successfully rescued by passing vessels from a safety boat after a distress signal was detected around 0300 local time (0100 GMT), on Monday. The alert had been received 60 nautical miles west-west of Doring Bay.

The focus of the current efforts is to prevent a fuel or oil spill and salvage its entire cargo of bags containing fertilizer from the vessel that was heading towards Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

Ramatjie stated that salvage operations are not hindered by the rough seas caused by a series cold fronts which have ravaged South Africa's port.

Transnet, a South African logistics company, announced on Tuesday that it had suspended some operations in its ports because of the high winds and waves that have ravaged parts of the country.

CMA CGM, a French shipping and logistic company, announced earlier on Thursday that its ship "Benjamin Franklin", had lost 44 cargo containers on Tuesday in bad weather conditions near the coast of South Africa. (Reporting and editing by David Evans; Wendell Roelf)