Tuesday Abandoned Ship Open Comments

I didn’t know this was a thing:

Fleet of abandoned ships is growing, leaving more sailors stuck at sea

More ships than ever are being abandoned around the world by their owners, according to the United Nations’ labor and maritime organizations, leaving thousands of workers stuck on board without pay or the means to travel home to their families.

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By international guidelines, workers are considered abandoned if shipowners fail to pay two or more months of wages, provide basic supplies or otherwise stop communicating with the crew.

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…Many crews reporting a lack of pay are on corroded ships built decades ago. The top countries for cases last year were the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Egypt and Saudi Arabia.

The worst cases have seen entire crews suffering weeks without adequate food or fresh water, or living on dark ships without electricity. Some workers languish on board for years,…

The AP found that shipowners often stopped paying workers when their costs skyrocketed or business dried up. Owners commonly left ships docked in ports where crews lacked immigration paperwork to step foot on land or at anchorages only reachable by boat.

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“They’re essentially imprisoned on these vessels,” Meldrum said. “It goes way beyond exploitation.”

Abdul Razzaq Abdul Khaliq, a Syrian sailor on board the Sister 12, wrote to AP over WhatsApp that the ship was full of insects and the crew had to use seawater for bathing. Photos and videos he shared show the faucets spewing cloudy brown water, rust blanketing the deck and only a few rotting pieces of produce in the pantry.

“(T)here is no food on the ship, there is no water, there is no life,” he wrote.

Friends Shipping,…, has a pattern of abandonment linked to its fleet…

Meldrum said Friends Shipping hires workers who are unaware of the company’s reputation, then leaves them in such dire conditions that many are willing to go home at the first chance — even without pay. A new crew will be staffed and the same thing happens, she said.

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Despite global treaties on labor rights, there are few avenues for holding owners accountable in an industry where ships are often registered under nondescript shell companies and fly the flags of countries unrelated to their operations.

Flag registries are expected to act as first responders to help repatriate seafarers and ensure they have food and medical care, according to U.N. guidelines….

AP’s reporting found many flag states still don’t intervene. Panama, Palau and Tanzania each registered dozens of the ships reported as abandoned in 2024.

The yearslong rise in abandonment cases could mean more seafarers are becoming willing to report abuse by their employers, but the overall figures likely underestimate the true picture of worker exploitation at sea. …

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I can’t even imagine being stranded aboard a ship without food or clean water for years.  YEARS!