Stranded Donald Duckling cargo ship crew return home

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sailorman

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This has been kept quiet in the Meeja
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tyne-25703763

The crew of a cargo ship detained on the River Tyne since November have flown home to the Philippines.
Eleven sailors on the Panama-registered Donald Duckling departed from Newcastle Airport, leaving the Romanian captain and chief engineer on board.
The Maritime and Coastguard Agency has held the ship at the Port of Tyne in North Shields over safety concerns.
Tommy Malloy, of the International Transport Workers' Federation, said it had been an "awful situation".
"They arrived in the UK with very little fuel and food and ran out of both very quickly.
"It is only the good nature of the people of Tyneside which has been keeping the crew going."
'So relieved'The ship had arrived on Tyneside to load a cargo of scrap metal bound for east Asia.
The crew had not been paid for two months before the ship was detained in the UK, according to Mr Malloy, and had been short of food.
He said they had now been paid for that period but have yet to receive a payment for December and January.
Mr Malloy added the men made many friends in the North East, but were "so relieved to be going home because conditions on that ship were absolutely appalling".
Support has also been provided by the Mission To Seafarers charity in South Shields.
The ship's owner, Taiwan-based TMT Group, has applied for bankruptcy protection in the United States.
The fate of the Donald Duckling remains unclear. TMT has yet to carry out the repairs necessary to enable it to leave the river.
 
sailorman said:
This has been kept quiet in the Meeja
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tyne-25703763

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Gotta pick yer meeja...
Lloyd's List has followed the whole sorry saga for some time.


TMT crew repatriated from Tyne

Friday 10 January 2014, 14:08

Coastguard pledges to detain the woodchip carrier until it tackles its deficiencies

MOST of the crew of a woodchip carrier linked to troubled Taiwainese shipowner Today Makes Tomorrow have been repatriated, having been trapped on board the 43,866 dwt Donald Duckling, detained by the UK’s Maritime and Coastguard Agency on the River Tyne since November.

According to Apostleship of the Sea, the Catholic mission to seafarers, only the master and the chief engineer remain on board.

Seven Romanian nationals paid their own way home after receiving their October and November salaries and 11 Filipinos departed on Thursday after the International Transport Workers’ Federation paid for their air fares.

The vessel is Panama-flagged and the ITF believes that the bill for the tickets should have been funded by the flag state to meet its obligations under the Maritime Labour Convention.

“There were mixed emotions. Obviously the crew are delighted to be going home to their families, but they have yet to receive most of their wages,” said AoS port chaplain Paul Atkinson.

The master, who hails from Romania, is expected to be repatriated next week.

Donald Duckling arrived in northeast England with provisions sufficient for 15 days that lasted only three days, due to faulty refrigeration.

Food and drinking water were provided by AoS and others in the community.

According to earlier reports in Lloyd’s List, the crew were at one stage reduced to catching fish and cooking them on deck, supplementing the meal with a 20 kg bag of rice donated by a local supermarket chain.

“We will continue to assist the remaining crew in any way we can until all are safely repatriated,” Mr Atkinson said.

An MCA spokesman said that under the terms of its detention, imposed on safety grounds, Donald Duckling will not be allowed to sail until deficiencies are rectified.

London-based representatives of TMT were not immediately available for comment.

Article from Lloyd's List
 
Unfortunately this is not an uncommon situation. It happens regularly here in Ireland too where crew end up destitute on impounded ships that owners have as good as abandoned. They end up being fed and clothed on charity. Its an absolute disgrace, but is probably just the tip of the iceberg. Can't imagine the state of third world shipping that dosent have to comply with European and US standards.
 
There is a ship in Tilbury Docks in exactly the same position, except the crew are still on board - not paid for 4 months.
 
I may be simplistic here… but.. A ship is a lot of good steel.. it is worth quite a lot.

Solution is simples, issue a fairly short time limit to fix the thing or it is impounded and scrapped. Back pay for all crew and other admin costs to be taken out of the scrap value.

Or is that too much of a way to solve problems?
 
Tomahawk said:
I may be simplistic here… but.. A ship is a lot of good steel.. it is worth quite a lot.

Solution is simples, issue a fairly short time limit to fix the thing or it is impounded and scrapped. Back pay for all crew and other admin costs to be taken out of the scrap value.

Or is that too much of a way to solve problems?
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Trouble is that scrapping a ship anywhere outside South Asia requires complying with various strict environmental laws. As well as steel, a ship tends to have quite a lot of asbestos, PCBs and other nasties on board. To realise the cash value of the steel, you need to find a buyer who will put a crew on board to take it to Alang or elsewhere. No UK or European port state control regime is going to stump up the cost for a European scrapping, which would raise five-eights of F-all, nor would it be allowed to ship it off to the third world for a non-green scrapping.
 
There is nothing new in the fortunes of this vessel......it caught my interest last year.

She arrived in Gib with the crew virtually starving and was put on the detatched mole. My good friend was working for the harbour at the time and was on the roping crew that docked the vessel. He was shocked at the condition of the crew.

She finally left Gib last year and I took the odd interest in following her on AIS.

Have seen the track wandering in the Med then anchored for weeks on Xantia (spelling?) bank off Morocco.

Also was anchored for weeks, maybe months off Gran Canaria.

Feel very sorry for the crew, its like something from the 18th century.......
 
capnsensible said:
There is nothing new in the fortunes of this vessel......it caught my interest last year.

She arrived in Gib with the crew virtually starving and was put on the detatched mole. My good friend was working for the harbour at the time and was on the roping crew that docked the vessel. He was shocked at the condition of the crew.

She finally left Gib last year and I took the odd interest in following her on AIS.

Have seen the track wandering in the Med then anchored for weeks on Xantia (spelling?) bank off Morocco.

Also was anchored for weeks, maybe months off Gran Canaria.

Feel very sorry for the crew, its like something from the 18th century.......
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Capitalism at it best
 
When the USSR was crumbling away in the early 90s a soviet cargo ship was stranded in Lerwick for months in a similar way, with the crew kept going by the generosity of Shetlanders and the willingness of local secondhand shops to buy anything that wasn't nailed or welded down to the ship. I have some very solid Russian cutlery and waterproofs somewhere around.
 
JumbleDuck said:
When the USSR was crumbling away in the early 90s a soviet cargo ship was stranded in Lerwick for months in a similar way, with the crew kept going by the generosity of Shetlanders and the willingness of local secondhand shops to buy anything that wasn't nailed or welded down to the ship. I have some very solid Russian cutlery and waterproofs somewhere around.
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During the same period, the Swedes got very fed up with former Soviet rustbuckets loaded with a useful cargo usually, sent one way by the Russian Mafia front companies into Gothenburg, for example, which the Swedes had to arrest because of their condition, then had to repatriate the crews when the ships were just abandoned by the owners, who'd cleared their profits on the cargo.
 
JumbleDuck said:
When the USSR was crumbling away in the early 90s a soviet cargo ship was stranded in Lerwick for months in a similar way, with the crew kept going by the generosity of Shetlanders and the willingness of local secondhand shops to buy anything that wasn't nailed or welded down to the ship. I have some very solid Russian cutlery and waterproofs somewhere around.
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I know an Estonian born and bred Russian Sparks(ex USSR Navy), who was on their "deep sea fishing fleet" when the USSR collapsed- his tales of how the crew swopped fish for diesel, did building work ashore, and anything else else fairly legal to get back from somewhere off Argentina to the Kola Inlet.
So at least therewas more than just an antennae farm on his ship.
Then the ship was just left there to rust, and he's told to get out of Russia as he's Estonian, then get out of Estonia with his Parents and Family because they are Russian's.
made a successful life as a Sparks over here and keeps a boat in the Solent, which is how I met them.:)
 
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