I'm not clear what Egypt's goal was by forcing this man to stay aboard the ship. Simply declaring him the guardian never made it so. He was never going to be able to resolve the issues himself and it appears the owners have simply abandoned it and written it off. If Egypt can't get money from the owners, then, as owners of the canal, deny other of their ships passage through it.
Stranded sailor allowed to leave abandoned ship after four years
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Re: Stranded sailor allowed to leave abandoned ship after four years
#42I don't understand what use he was on that ship? And can't they find any out of work person from shore to take his place? I'm sure there are dozens lining up to get that job for a few pennies an hour. And they might just have family in the area that can help sustain them.
Re: Stranded sailor allowed to leave abandoned ship after four years
#43I don't understand why he couldn't just get on another ship and leave forever. Worst case you just never go back to that shitty country right?
Apparently his passport was confiscated[1] so he wouldn’t have been able to do so legally, nor return home even if he did manage to get on a ship.
And if you work in international shipping it’s not very good for your career to be blacklisted from Egypt.
[1] https://www.maritime-executive.com/article/chief-mate-strand...
Re: Stranded sailor allowed to leave abandoned ship after four years
#44If he had silently sneaked off the ship, would someone have noticed? How long would it take for anyone to notice that a ship without power and crewed by just 1 person was actually abandoned?
From the article, he did sneak off the ship routinely after it ran aground some years later. He would sneak off, buy food and recharge his phone, then return to the ship for some bizarre reason.
I believe he was allowed to go to shore. Unfortunately, the closest place is a restricted military area and he was only allowed to stay for 2 hours each visit. He cannot even sneak off as he is getting into a military base for food, water and power. If it has been a civilian area, he could have just stayed on the land.
It is a sad state of affairs, whichever way you look at it.
Re: Stranded sailor allowed to leave abandoned ship after four years
#45If he had silently sneaked off the ship, would someone have noticed? How long would it take for anyone to notice that a ship without power and crewed by just 1 person was actually abandoned?
From the article, he did sneak off the ship routinely after it ran aground some years later. He would sneak off, buy food and recharge his phone, then return to the ship for some bizarre reason.
They had his passport, so it would have been difficult for him to leave and risking arrest by either the Egyptian or Syrian police.
Re: Stranded sailor allowed to leave abandoned ship after four years
#46Earlier quoted context omitted.
according to news articles he SWAM to shore to pick up basic supplies. Not even a small rowing boat or something was made available to him.
In the article it states that he started swimming to shore only after the ship had run aground a few hundred meters from the shore. So the question remains, how did he sustain himself beforehand? Did the ship have years worth of supplies for him on board?
So, does that mean this guy's been eating Bahrainian MREs for the whole time?
Re: Stranded sailor allowed to leave abandoned ship after four years
#47Earlier quoted context omitted.
In the article it states that he started swimming to shore only after the ship had run aground a few hundred meters from the shore. So the question remains, how did he sustain himself beforehand? Did the ship have years worth of supplies for him on board?
i'm sorry, my error.
All good my friend.
I found the article to be really poor actually. It seems a lot of details were left out, possibly for maximum effect at editorializing the situation.
Re: Stranded sailor allowed to leave abandoned ship after four years
#48It is supremely unfair for the court to assign him full responsibility for the ship, but without any power over it. If the court were serious about the situation they should have handed the ship over to him entirely. He could then put the ship up on the market for whomever wanted to buy it or sell it to a scrapping company. If you think this would be unfair to the ships owners this is exactly the point. Force them to…
I don't know how collateral on a mortgage on a ship this size works. But I am pretty sure even if they handed it to him, he couldn't do anything with it because it would have a Lein on it. Your point still remains valid though.
Lein’s don’t normally work that way after a boat was seized. Handing it to the remaining sailor isn’t identical, but don’t assume loans have much weight here.
The mess of US civil forfeiture laws originally showed up in maritime law such that the owners and outstanding loans became irrelevant. In effect the physical object is what’s confiscated breaking any ties to anyone that had a prior ownership stake.
Re: Stranded sailor allowed to leave abandoned ship after four years
#49Why would you write an article like this without a word describing the legal consequences of leaving the ship? What consequence would be worth four years of your life? Edit: a more useful video linked below explains that the authorities confiscated his passport. That would make it difficult to leave. Though I'd probably try anyway after a year of that.
I imagine that a legal system that forces a random guy to stay trapped on a ship for four years would do something worse to someone who defies their order.
Re: Stranded sailor allowed to leave abandoned ship after four years
#50So could anyone have saved this guy by delivering enough fuel to get to port? I wonder what the costs would have been.