The MRCC (Marine Rescue Co-ordination Centre) Cape Town played a pivotal role in the rescue of 36 people whose fishing vessel caught alight and sank off the east coast of Southern Africa.

MRCC Cape Town was notified at 3am on Tuesday morning by the MRCC Falmouth, U.K that they had received a satellite distress alert from a Spanish Fishing vessel – the Galaecia, 872 nautical miles east of East London. A few minutes later the MRCC Madrid detected a distress beacon from the Galaecia that corresponded with the first distress alert.
Minutes after Madrid had detected the distress beacon, the MRCC Reunion heard via radio from the crew that the vessel was on fire. By this stage the vessel was 17 nautical miles inside Reunions international waters. At 3.27am MRCC Uruguay contacted the Cape Town MRCC to advise them of the distress alert.

By 3.29am Cape Town Radio advised the MRCC that another Spanish Fishing vessel – Valencia, had responded to the distress alert and confirmed that the vessel was indeed on fire and the crew were abandoning ship and boarding life-rafts.
The MRCC Reunion was unable to make radio contact with the Valencia and requested assistance from Cape Town radio, who were able to communicate with the Valencia and obtain a satellite phone number in order for the MRCC Reunion to be able to contact them directly via phone.

By 3.52am the MRCC Reunion requested MRCC Cape Town to initiate a Mayday relay broadcast on their behalf for all vessels in the area to assist the stricken vessel.

The Durban based Fishing vessel, the Galaxy, and the Niko Maru No.1 from Walvis Bay responded immediately and proceeded towards the distress position.
MRCC Madrid had also been in contact with Spanish Fishing vessels in the vicinity and informed Cape Town that the Galaxy had rescued the crew of 36 people safely. The Galaecia was still burning and slowly began to sink.
MRCC Cape Town communicated the final outcome to Reunion as Madrid was unable to contact them.