THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, September 21, 1994 TAG: 9409210395
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY CHRISTOPHER DINSMORE, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 88 lines
Most commercial ships don't stay in the port of Hampton Roads two days, let alone two years.
The Bor was a special case. After being stuck here for two years it should sail Thursday with a new name, a new owner and a fresh coat of paint, according to the ship's agent, David F. Host of T. Parker Host Inc.
When the Maltese-flagged vessel sailed into the port in Oct. 1992, U.S. Customs agents seized it on evidence it was actually owned by a company in Montenegro, one of the six republics that made up the former Yugoslavia. The United Nations had just passed sanctions barring commerce with the former Yugoslavian states as a result of the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
The ship sat at anchorage off Newport News for 20 months before it was auctioned off in June. The new owner has since spent more than $500,000 in Hampton Roads, repairing and outfitting the ship to sail again.
``To replicate what they've spent in Norfolk, you'd have to hold a major convention,'' said Doug Forrest, vice president of Colonna's Shipyard Inc., which did the repair work on the vessel.
Renamed the Aslinur, the 12,000-ton bulk carrier is nearly 400 feet long. It is designed to transport bulk products such as coal, wheat, sugar and fertilizer. Unlike many bulk carriers, the Aslinur is equipped to load and unload itself.
The Aslinur should sail Thursday for Portsmouth, N.H., where it will pick up a load of scrap steel destined for Turkey, the home of its new owner, Turmar Shipping and Trading Co. Ltd. of Instanbul, Host said.
Turmar plans to operate the Aslinur in the Mediterranean Sea, Host said.
The Bor was bound for Hopewell to pick up a load of fertilizer when it stopped in Newport News two years ago for fuel. As it docked it was boarded by the U.S. Customs Service, which seized its operating papers at the order of the U.S. Department of Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control in a procedure known as blocking.
``It could not go any further,'' said Norman Sape, Newport News port director for the Customs Service. ``It could not do any business in the United States. It could not leave. It could not do anything.''
While the Bor was stuck at anchor, its skeleton crew had to beg and scrape for food, water and fuel, since its owner couldn't do business in the United States. As a result the ship ran up numerous debts.
Earlier this year the ship's Yugoslavian owner asked the Office of Foreign Assets Control to auction the ship so it could pay the Bor's debts and the debts of its sister ship the Bar, which is blocked in New Orleans, an official with that office said.
With the permission of the U.N., the government hired Arlington-based EG&G Dynatrend Inc. to handle the sale. ``They did a hell of a job marketing the ship,'' Host said.
The Turkish company's owner and agents for more than a dozen other shipping companies attended the auction aboard the Bor on the morning of June 24.
Host, who was also there, had expected the ship to sell for under $500,000, but the bidding quickly soared to more than $1 million. Tarmar finally won with a bid of $1.35 million.
The sale closed in late July.
The new owner first found out about the Bor auction while reading a newspaper in the bathroom of a London ship broker. He stopped at the sale while on his way to Disney World with his wife and child.
The ship's sale released the 6-man crew from the mind-numbing task of maintaining the Bor as it sat at anchor. They returned to their homes, mostly in the former Yugoslavia. The ship's captain went to New Orleans where he replaced the captain of the Bar.
With a new crew aboard, the ship was towed over to Colonna's Shipyard, which had won the repair work in bidding against other Hampton Roads yards.
Colonna's took two years worth of sewage out of the ship's bilges, sandblasted and repainted it and put in some steel plates, Forrest said. It also helped examine its internal framing and did some minor engine work.
Before it could sail the ship also had to be fitted with a lot of safety and other equipment, such as a satellite navigation system, new life rafts and fire extinguishers.
``It spent a lot of money in the yard and the port,'' Host said.
The ship has been an adventure for T. Parker Host, the agency representing the ship's charterer when it was first seized. The agency has represented the new owner since he won it at auction.
``To tell you the truth, I've never been so involved in a ship from beginning to end,'' said Host, who's been in the business for 17 years. ILLUSTRATION: END OF A 2-YEAR WAIT
PAUL AIKEN/STAFF [Color Photo]
The Aslinur, fromerly the Bor, is designed to transport bulk
products such as coal, wheat and sugar.
by CNB