THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, July 14, 1996 TAG: 9607140039
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BILL SIZEMORE, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: 78 lines
Marooned in Hampton Roads for six months while their ship was tied up with mechanical, financial and legal troubles, 28 Pakistani and Indian seamen are winging their way home at last.
The stranded sailors flew out of Norfolk International Airport Saturday afternoon, bound for Karachi, Pakistan, and 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 May 30.
The crew had been abandoned by the ship's former owner after the vessel was towed into port here with engine trouble in January.
They had not been paid since November.
Some had 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 lawyer, 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 in U.S. District Court, 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 about two dozen lodged in federal court.
The rest, involving millions of dollars for repairs, fuel, supplies and services, will take weeks if not months to unravel. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
CHRISTOPHER REDDICK/The Virginian-Pilot
From left, Wagas Salman (with cap), Syed Shabbir Hussain Shah, Syed
Ijtaba Hussain Zeidi and another crew member, board a flight to
Atlanta on the crew's way back to Pakistan and India.
Photo
CHRISTOPHER REDDICK/The Virginian-Pilot
Electrical engineer Syed Shabbir Hussain Shah waits for his flight
to Atlanta at Norfolk International Airport. Shah had been stranded
in Norfolk since the Pride of Donegal limped into Hampton Roads with
engine trouble in January. by CNB