THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, May 31, 1996 TAG: 9605310479
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BILL SIZEMORE, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: 63 lines
The luckless crewmen aboard a disabled freighter stranded in the Hampton Roads harbor felt a ray of hope among Thursday's cool breezes.
The Liberian-registered Pride of Donegal was sold at public auction on the federal courthouse steps for $5.1 million. The sale means that within a few weeks, the ship's 28 Pakistani and Indian crewmen should be able to collect their back wages and return home to their families.
The men haven't been paid in seven months. Some of them have been aboard the ill-fated vessel as long as a year.
The Pride of Donegal, owned by a Liberian-registered company operating out of Panama, sailed from Canada in December carrying a load of heavy machinery bound for the Far East. Engine troubles in the Atlantic sent it limping into port here in mid-January.
Since March it has been anchored off the Norfolk Naval Base, where the crewmen have been awaiting the resolution of claims filed by their lawyer and by a variety of creditors seeking hundreds of thousands of dollars in back pay, repairs, fuel, supplies and services.
Thursday's sale, which was ordered by U.S. District Judge John A. MacKenzie, brings the matter close to resolution.
The sale, presided over by a U.S. marshal, drew spirited bidding from six would-be buyers. The successful bidder was Banco Wiese Limitado, the Peruvian bank that holds the ship's $5.5 million mortgage.
Several of the crewmen came ashore to watch the proceedings. David K. Sutelan, a lawyer with the firm of Mays & Valentine in Norfolk who bid on the bank's behalf, greeted them after the sale and said, ``You're going home.''
Benjamin M. Mason, a Newport News lawyer representing the crewmen, said he was pleased with the sale price. ``I had hoped for at least $3.5 million, but the crewmen were confident it would bring $5 million, and they were right,'' Mason said.
For the crew, abandoned by the ship's owners and stuck aboard during the legal wrangling, the waiting has been ``torment,'' said Syed Ijtaba Hussain Zeidi, the second engineer. The chief officer remains incapacitated by back trouble, and several other crew members have suffered apparent psychosomatic illnesses, Zeidi said.
With no money being sent home, ``our families and children have suffered a lot,'' said Syed Shabbir Hussain Shah, the electrical engineer.
The crew tries to keep busy to ease the tedium. The entire deck of the 518-foot freighter has now been repainted, Zeidi said.
Under U.S. law the crewmen and local creditors will be near the head of the line among those seeking to collect from the sale. The sale price should ensure that all claimants are paid in full, Mason said.
Once Mason and representatives of the other claimants agree on how to divide the funds - a process he hopes will take no more than two to three weeks - the crewmen should be homeward bound. ILLUSTRATION: Color photos by Lawrence Jackson
The Auction
The Top Bidder
[Norfolk lawyer David K. Sutelan]
The Ship
[The Pride of Donegal]
KEYWORDS: AUCTION SHIP by CNB