ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, July 14, 1996 TAG: 9607150085
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-5 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: NORFOLK
SOURCE: BILL SIZEMORE LANDMARK NEWS SERVICE
Marooned in Hampton Roads for six months while their ship was tied up with mechanical, financial and legal troubles, 28 Pakistani and Indian sailors are winging their way home at last.
The stranded seamen flew out of Norfolk Saturday afternoon, bound for Karachi, Pakistan, or Bombay, India.
``We have been waiting for this moment to come,'' said Syed Ijtaba Hussain Zeidi, the second engineer.
Their way home was cleared last week when they reached a settlement with the Peruvian bank that bought the Liberian-registered freighter Pride of Donegal for $5.1 million at a court-ordered auction May30.
The crew essentially had been abandoned by the ship's owner after the vessel was towed into port here with engine trouble in January.
They had not been paid since November.
Some have been away from home nearly 14 months. They were virtual prisoners aboard the vessel for three months while it was anchored in the harbor, and they had no way to get ashore. Since a new crew was put on board a month ago, they had been housed in the Howard Johnson Hotel in downtown Norfolk.
The men's joy at going home was tempered by disappointment in the size of the settlement.
They received about $200,000 in back wages, plus another $75,000 to cover their air fare home and their food and lodging since they left the ship. After paying their attorney, they'll net less than $6,000 apiece on average.
They had hoped to collect penalties and attorney's fees over and above their lost wages. But at a hearing last week, U.S. District Judge John A. MacKenzie indicated he would be unlikely to order such payments.
``I'm not satisfied,'' Zeidi said. ``But if it is written in my fate, nobody can change it. So we are accepting it.
``Anyway, we are quite happy still. God will compensate us some other way.''
The seamen flew off into a brilliant blue sky Saturday, a sharp contrast to the gray wintry day when their voyage from Canada to Bombay was cut short.
On their last night in Norfolk, they packed their bags to the accompaniment of tropical storm Bertha's howling winds.
``This storm didn't bother us,'' Zeidi said with a shrug. ``We had already gone through a bigger storm.''
He was referring to the crewmen's six months of forced idleness, with no money to send to their families back home.
Some of the men, despairing as the weeks stretched into months, stopped calling home.
Ashfaq Ahmed, the third engineer, said he called his wife recently and she expressed doubt she would ever see him again. ``I think you've married an American woman,'' she told him.
There were medical emergencies, too. Syed Sajjad Ul Hassan, the chief engineer, was rushed to the hospital two weeks ago for an appendectomy. He had recuperated in time for the flight home Saturday.
Meanwhile, the Pride of Donegal has been given a new identity. After a few more repairs at Norshipco, it is expected to return to the high seas soon as Lobo de Mar, Spanish for ``Sea Wolf.'''
But it will leave a legal morass behind in Norfolk. The crewmen's claim was just one of some two dozen lodged in federal court. The rest, seeking millions of dollars for repairs, fuel, supplies and services, will take weeks if not months to unravel.
LENGTH: Medium: 67 linesby CNB