The crew – 20 Indians and one Sri Lankan – trapped on Singapore-flagged container ship DALI, which struck and brought down parts of the Francis Scott Key or Baltimore Bridge in USA’s Maryland on March 26, is pining for home.
The seamen, virtually trapped in the ship for almost two months, as they do not have visas or shore passes to disembark, are hankering after things that remind them of home – Indian language periodicals and newspapers, snack foods and someone to speak to them in Hindi, Malayalam and Tamil, a US-based non-profit, the Seamen’s Church Institute (SCI), has reported.
In a post on its website, SCI details how, after it received reports of the bridge collapse and the stranded crew, its members were able to get permissions to board the ship a week later and meet the stranded men.
SCI, which offers free legal assistance, education and pastoral care to seafarers, is affiliated with the Episcopal Church.
Gaining access to the stricken vessel was difficult because of US Coast Guard and National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigations, but SCI members were able to spend a day aboard the DALI, offering one-on-one support and group meetings with the seamen.
Though the visitors noted that the ship’s operator had looked after the crew well, most of the seamen were feeling isolated and wanted to speak in their own language.
Despite contacting maritime chaplains who spoke the crew’s languages, the SCI team could not return to the ship quickly because the FBI on April 15 said it was aboard the DALI conducting court-authorised investigations.
Later, when it did manage to meet the crew again the SCI team reported that the seamen were relieved to communicate with the chaplains in their own language.
However, they were cut off from the world as their phones and laptops had been taken away by the FBI, which meant they had lost their “contact numbers, WeChat, and WhatsApp applications to connect with family and friends, increasing the crew’s sense of isolation.”
The SCI then contacted its Centre for Mariner Advocacy to get in touch with US Coast Guard authorities, apprise them of the seafarers’ plight and find out when their phones would be returned.
Six new mobile phones were then given to the crew by the operator the next day with the reassurance that the FBI would return their phones.
As of now the SCI is working with other seafarers’ organisations to arrange for the items required by the crew. What the seamen want most are their phones. Then there are “Items that remind them of home such as Indian-language periodicals and newspapers, Indian snack foods, toiletries, and ongoing support and vessel visits.”
Hindi, Malayalam, and Tamil speaking chaplains will “continue to travel to the ship for morale visits as part of SCI’s ongoing care and organise the required items,” reads the SCI statement signed off by The Reverend Mark Nestlehutt, SCI President and Executive Director.
Cargo ship DALI was on its way from Baltimore in the US to Sri Lanka when equipment on board stopped working after power failure.
In its report released on May 14, NTSB said the ship experienced two electrical blackouts 10 hours before departure from the port of Baltimore. Though power was restored enabling it to set sail, another blackout hit DALI half a mile away from the bridge. Its propeller stopped and prevented the rudder from moving.
However, power was briefly restored but went out again very close to the bridge, but though the crews were eventually able to restore it they could not get the propeller system online and the DALI struck the bridge.
The SCI members have been guardian angels for the crew, but the Indians and Sri Lankans, who had just expected a month’s run in the DALI when it sailed, need to know when they will be freed.
They don't know anything about their future, lucky as they are to have escaped with their lives in a horrific accident - but is anyone concerned about them?
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