A tale of two Argentine naval vessels

While the Argentine navy's corvette, Espora (ARA P-41), has calmly rested in Simon's Town harbour over the past two weeks, another of its ships, the Libertad, is clogging up Tema, Ghana's main port. This 100-metre long tallship is a training vessel and was seized on 1 October under a court order relating to Argentina's brutal debt default in 2002. Elliott Capital Management, which still owns a piece of Argentina's defaulted debt, has steadfastly pursued a payout despite the exchange into new debt that was effected in 2005. And now, in New York, the US Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that Argentina is barred from giving priority to bondholders who accepted the 2005 debt exchanges that flowed from Argentina's massive sovereign debt default at the beginning of the decade. This is not the end of the saga by any means as Argentina will surely appeal this ruling. But in the meantime, Libertad is blocking berth 11 at Tema and the Ghanaian Ports Authority wants to move it to a quieter part of the harbour. Down in Simon's Town, the P-41 has idled on the outer wall of the harbour and is blocking nobody. In fact it didn't even participate in the latest exercise which involved warships from Brazil, India and South Africa. The QSL is from WPTR in New York, heard on 1540 AM in Cape Town back in 1968.