THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, April 26, 1996 TAG: 9604260497
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BILL SIZEMORE, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Long : 136 lines
It's named the Pride of Donegal, but its disheartened crewmen have nicknamed it the Alcatraz.
The Liberian-registered freighter sailed from Canada in December, bound for Bombay with a load of heavy machinery. Hampton Roads wasn't even on the itinerary.
But engine troubles in the Atlantic sent it limping into port here in mid-January, and here it sits today - anchored off the Norfolk Naval Base and awaiting a court-ordered auction.
For the ship's 28 Pakistani and Indian crewmen, it's been the voyage to nowhere. The lifeboats are in a state of disrepair, a water taxi to shore costs $150 each way, and the crewmen haven't seen a paycheck in six months. So they're stuck.
``You can imagine how hard it has been for us,'' Syed Ijtaba Hussain Zeidi, the second engineer, said in a shipboard interview Thursday. ``We are like floating prisoners.''
Zeidi had planned to be home in mid-February. He has now been on the ship 11 months. He's been stuck in Hampton Roads three months.
The vessel's mechanical problems began in the Great Lakes, Zeidi said, but the owners - apparently due to money problems - refused to make repairs.
``We said, `For God's sake, take action,' '' Zeidi said. ``But they said, `No, keep on your voyage at any cost.' ''
Finally, 560 miles east of Norfolk, despite round-the-clock efforts by the crew to keep going, the engines gave up.
The disabled 518-foot freighter was towed into port Jan. 18 and detained by the Coast Guard for safety violations.
``The Coast Guard boarded and discovered quite a few problems,'' said Lt. Dan Rotermund, a spokesman for the Coast Guard Marine Safety Office in Norfolk. ``All of the documents that addressed the required safety aboard the vessel were expired.''
The ship was docked at Norfolk International Terminals for repairs. But the owners soon became embroiled in disputes with crewmen and creditors who claimed they weren't being paid.
Now the ship is at the center of a many-sided legal tussle in federal court. Claims have been filed on behalf of the crewmen and a variety of creditors seeking hundreds of thousands of dollars to cover back pay, repair bills, fuel, supplies and services.
The case has generated a 5-inch-thick file of claims, counterclaims, affidavits and orders - and a phalanx of lawyers to sort it all out.
Just determining who owns the ship proved to be a challenge. It was finally determined to be a Liberian-registered company that operates out of an office in Panama.
U.S. marshals have ``arrested'' the ship so it can't leave Hampton Roads until the claims are settled. The pier at the terminal was needed for other work, so last month the Pride of Donegal was moved to an offshore anchorage west of the naval base.
The atmosphere on board during the long wait has been testy at times.
To help defuse the tension, the crew tries to stay busy. Even the normally grimy engine room has been scrubbed until it sparkles.
``If you try to keep yourself busy, you don't have as much time to pay attention to your problems,'' said Zeidi, the crewman.
The captain left the vessel ``because he was afraid of personal injury,'' said Rotermund, the Coast Guard spokesman.
Zeidi had a different take on the captain's departure.
``He ran away, deserted,'' Zeidi said. ``He left all the people on the ship at the mercy of God.''
The chief officer, Abdul Hameed Khan, is now technically in charge, but he's laid up with back trouble. With no money to pay for medical care, he spends his days lying on a pallet on the deck of his cabin with a heating pad for the pain.
U.S. District Judge John A. MacKenzie ordered earlier this month that the ship be sold at auction May 30 and the proceeds used to pay the claimants.
Benjamin M. Mason, a Newport News lawyer representing the crewmen, said the vessel is appraised at between $6 million and $7 million. A Peruvian bank holds a $5.5 million mortgage on it, but under U.S. law the crewmen and local creditors stand to get paid first, Mason said.
But to get paid, the crew has to stay. In the meantime, there's nothing to do but wait.
Last weekend, at Mason's request, Judge MacKenzie appointed W.J. Browning Co. Inc., a Norfolk shipping agent, to keep the ship supplied with food, water, fuel and other necessary supplies until the matter is resolved.
But after six months with no pay, the crewmen have no money to send to their families back home. And since the ship was moved offshore, just communicating with their relatives has been next to impossible.
``It has been a very tough time for them, both physically and emotionally, because of not being able to provide for their families,'' Mason said.
Zeidi had bought an apartment in Pakistan before the voyage. But when his income was cut off he canceled the deal, even though it cost him 10 percent of the purchase price, so there would be money to keep his three children fed.
``We are eating here, but when we start to eat, we are always thinking of our families,'' Zeidi said. ``What is happening to them? Do they have anything to eat?''
Syed Shabbir Hussain Shah, the electrical engineer, said he had to take out a loan at 20 percent interest to feed his extended family of 12. His son, a university student, has missed a semester because there was no money for tuition.
Most of the crewmen are Muslim, and they feel their isolation most acutely on religious holidays. There's one coming up Monday: Eid-ul-Azha, a time when normally they would attend services at a mosque and exchange gifts with friends and family. Now, even a phone call home will be difficult to manage.
Charlotte Smith, director of the International Seamen's House, a mariners' haven in Norfolk, called the crew's plight ``kind of tragic.''
She said she has seen foreign seamen in similar predicaments before.
``They're recruited and told stories, and then they get in a situation like this and they're trapped,'' she said.
``They're like prisoners at Alcatraz - looking from the ship to shore and no way to get there.''
Still, the crewmen are thankful they landed in a country where they have a legal remedy.
``We really are lucky that we are in the United States,'' Zeidi said. ``If we had been in some other country, like India, Pakistan, China or Bangladesh, we would have been finished.''
They are also grateful for the help they've received from people like Edd Morris, an inspector with the International Transport Workers Federation who put them in touch with attorney Mason.
Ultimately, Mason hopes his clients will come out better than the crew of another ill-fated ship, the Taxiarchis, a Greek freighter that was detained in Newport News for six months in 1994 because of safety violations. That ship, too, was eventually sold at auction. But because it brought only $310,000, the 17-man crew had to settle for 75 percent of their back wages - and they had to pay their own way home.
ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by Lawrence Jackson\The Virginian-Pilot
``We are like floating prisoners'' Legal, mechanical troubles strand
hapless crew on ship
LAWRENCE JACKSON/The Virginian-Pilot
The Pride of Donegal has become a prison for the luckless crewmen
who must stay aboard to ever collect any pay. The owners of the
ship, which needs repairs, are being sued.
KEYWORDS: ABANDONED SHIP LIBERIA FREIGHTER AUCTION US. COAST GUARD
by CNB