The rights of mariners
Horrors – I didn’t realize the crew of the ship that destroyed the Key Bridge in Baltimore are stuck on the damn ship.
As a controlled explosion rocked the Dali on Monday, nearly two dozen sailors remained on board, below deck in the massive ship’s hull. The simultaneous blasts sent pieces of Baltimore’s once
iconicFrancis Scott Key Bridge into the dark waters of Maryland’s Patapsco River, seven weeks after its collapse left six people on the bridge dead and the Dali marooned.Authorities – and the crew – hope that the demolition will mark the beginning of the end of a long process that has left the 21 men on board trapped and cut off from the world, thousands of miles from their homes.
They’re bound to be used to being trapped on the ship for long periods, but not that long, and not with nothing to do but wait. Makes me claustrophobic just thinking about it.
The crew, made up of 20 Indians and a Sri Lankan national, has been unable to disembark because of visa restrictions, a lack of required shore passes and parallel ongoing investigations by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and FBI.
Jeez. You’d think officialdom could come up with some way to keep track of them but still let them off the ship.
Among those who have been in touch with the crew is Joshua Messick, executive director of the Baltimore International Seafarers’ Center, a non-profit organisation that works to protect the rights of mariners. According to Mr Messick, the crew has been left largely without communication with the outside world for “a couple of weeks” after their mobile phones were confiscated by the FBI as part of the investigation.
“They can’t do any online banking. They can’t pay their bills at home. They don’t have any of their data or anyone’s contact information, so they’re really isolated right now,” Mr Messick said. “They just can’t reach out to the folks they need to, or even look at pictures of their children before they go to sleep. It’s really a sad situation.”
The owners and bosses of course remain free and comfortable.
Sadly, this is not unusual. Even if the crew are issued shore passes, they may still be blocked from stepping ashore. Many ports in the USA are private property, and therefore declare crewmembers trespassers if they leave the ship. Many ports, globally, do not allow crew changes anymore, as they ban non-company vehicles from entering. This was common before 9/11, but afterwards it became virtually impossible in too many ports (here’s looking at you, Oakland, New York, Norfolk). Seattle, LA and San Francisco used to allow crew swaps, but then a mariner has just 24 (or in some cases 12) hours to leave US territory, on pain of arrest. My company preferred Vancouver, Halifax or Singapore to swap crew. Twice I had to extend a voyage, as the US blocked anyone leaving the ship. (Only Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Kuwait had enforced laws banning even stepping off the gangway, keeping a machine handy in case anyone was foolish enough. And using a camera on deck, even taking a picture of the ship, was illegal. But several US ports had armed guards patrolling the quay).
Once the Dali left the berth, and was heading out of US waters, any shore passes can be, and probably were, voided. As her next port was in Asia, immigration can simply refuse to re-issue new passes. The only time the crew might leave now is wearing handcuffs. If the ship comes alongside, expect the Coastguard to make their lives hell: drills, searches, interrogation, ripping the accommodation apart as they go. From the very bitter experience of having 9mm pistols pointed at me, because I was sticking to the international law that allows seafarers to have a locked cabinet in their cabin. CG broke it open when they found it locked, and then threatened me with arrest when I returned to my cabin to find broken furniture. It was not a pleasant day, and that made me seriously question how safe we were. And that was a British ship, with a British crew!
Once repaired, the crew of the Dali might be allowed to leave, without setting ashore, when she sails. But they are probably terrified of arrest.
Jeez indeed. I didn’t realize that the heartless fat orange loser was still in charge.
Freeinder, thanks – I didn’t know any of that. Horrible.
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Athel: The semi senile stumbler isn’t all that much better on some issues, including actually building a piece of the wall. Hell, Saint Barry Obama (pbhn) of Hyde Park imprisoned quite a few ferrinurz during his Peace Prize bedecked term.
May as well call it the Dalit, because the crew members are being treated as untouchable.
There is a disturbing video on Youtube with the totally humourless, stone-walling top bloke (I hate the term ‘CEO’ — who invented it?) of P&O Ferries trying to justify his company’s’ treatment of it its workforce.
https://youtu.be/sJcH-thrx5E?si=i5pxdHE2sR5Dg3GB