The revoked DOC affects Transatlantic as well. Ship can not trade while company has no DOC.
USCG and class will have to carry out audit at the company to re-validate the DOC before anything else.
Without payment of overdue invoices I think class and USCG are not doing any inspections or audits for the company or any of their ships.
it sounds like TAL is a dead company now.
THANK FUCKING GOD! now let us hope that a genuine operator comes forward to take over the runs and carry the cargoes. There are several out there who can do this who are standup companies and I hope that the miserable bottom feeding likes of TAL never returns (although that is doubtful)
Letās just get the crew off safely first
As I recall, a seamen has a right to demand discharge and pay off when a ship is unsafe, I.e., out of class, or without a COI. Transatlantic has been under USCG detention for safety deficiencies for more than a month. The crew is unpaid since May. They have a right to sign off.
If the master is refusing to sign off the crew, they should report him to the USCG, and their union, MEBA, and they should add the Master personally as a named defendant in their lawsuit.
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The crew was advised by the above ālittle pukeā that all their contracts are now voided (it doesnāt legally work that way) and that they will be finding their own way home, i.e. pay for your own flight. The ship is not at a dock currently as it is anchored away from the dock area so a launch will need to be called, at a rate of $230+ for the crew.
iāll launch the rhib off my boat and pick them up for freeā¦it would take me a few trips though.
there are five launch companies in long beach, and I would hope at least one of them would comp it for their fellow seafarers.
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I donāt believe anyone on the ship is following this post but Iāll let them know of your generous offer if you want me to.
They are being told (again) that they are going to be paid either Friday (yesterday) or Monday.
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If MEBA is not helping you, call the International Seamenās Center, at (562) 432-7560 and ask them for help. The seamenās center is located at 120 Pico Ave in Long Beach. They provide assistance to seamen, including showers, communications, temporary housing, rides, and prayer. The director of the seamenās center is undoubtedly a minister that knows people in the Long Beach Community. No one wants to say no to him. Not Gudmundor. Not the owner of the launch service. Not even the worthless MEBA business agent.
MEBA should put up a measly $230 and arrange a launch to get the entire crew ashore, and rides to the airport. If MEBA is a collection of worthless scumbags, instead of being a maritime union, and it wonāt help its members and pledges, Iām sure someone else in Long Beach will. Iād bet the seamenās center can find someone to get you ashore. Iām sure that the seamenās center can also get you onto the right bus to the airport.
MEBA should also get plane tickets home for their members and pledges. Probably, itās up to the rest of the crew to get their own plane tickets. Credit cards are useful for this purpose. So are friends and relatives.
If you have a deadbeat employer, a worthless make-believe union, no money, no credit cards, no friends, and no relatives, if your that pathetic, then that is your fault. You probably donāt deserve much help, but go to the City of Long Beach and apply for welfare.
It is beyond my thinking on how the owner can just walk away from a crew he hired - though never paid - and just left them literally afloat, leaving them without potable water and very low rations. How can someone be that morally screwed up to do that to an entire crew as I am sure he is enjoying his Sunday morning country club brunch in his historically renowned Greenwich homeā¦
Man, I have been following this since the start as Iāve had friends that worked on these POS in the past.
If one was just now coming into this discussion, I would bet they would be shocked to find out we are talking about U.S. Flagged Vessels and not some FOC crap! In the past years we have all heard about the treatment of Foreign Crews when their Companyās abandoned them but here we are having this conversation about U.S Flagged Vessels and U.S. Crews, right here at home. This is disgusting and unbelievable! Add to this the fact that this POS Company mainly survived on Government Contracts just adds to my disgust! They, Our Government, should step into this also as they are just as guilty in my eyes for letting this company get away with the way they have been operating.
What Iām waiting for is the Company *for lack of a better word) coming out and stating how the HIGH Cost of U.S. Crews lead to this situation, which each and everyone of us know is utter B.S. but those reading this in whichever news source will believe each and every word. They will publish how much ācanā be made for working 6+ months and Joe Public will not show any caring as they would do this work for less. This tactic has been done in more than one Union Dispute that Iāve been involved of. They always seem to find the most uneducated and sloppy crew member to be interviewed!
I hope that MEBA steps up as they are (or were supposed to be) the Best Maritime Union. If they donāt I hope that each and everyone of their members take note of this as they could be next!
I also agree with getting the Seamanās Church involved. It will most likely come as a shock to them to see how low a U.S. company will stoop! It really sucks to see what used to be a great industry and while, Iām still proud to call myself a Proud U.S. Mariner, I am glad that Iām retired. My Brother and I were talking to other day about the decline in our U.S. Merchant Fleet. It pains us to watch something that gave our family 5 Generations of employment to go down like this and that we are glad that weāre the last generation as none of our family chose a life at Sea as a Career.
I hope that those Crews get every dime of whatās owed to them before any other bill and or claims are paid! I guess we will have to wait and see what happens. If these crews are not paid before any creditor this should serve as another (and most important) wake up call as it will show just where the U.S. Seaman / Worker rates.
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HEAR, HEAR BROTHER!
I do not know much about Gudmundorās past other than he had some capacity with Van Ommeren Shipping in the 80ās and 90ās when they had the STRONG vessels and after Hvide took over the ships he found some money and started TAL by winning the contract for the run to Keflavik using the GAYSIR. He ran that little POS vessel on the Iceland run in the dead of winter in weather that ship was never built to withstand even during summer when brand new.
It was is November 2004 that they were looking for a master for her and offered me the job. During the phone interview, I asked all the usual questions of outstanding 835ās and if the vessel was fit for the run which of course was all answered that the ship was in excellent condition and there were no issues with machinery or safety equipment. Based on this, I flew to Norfolk to meet the ship at Little Creek and instantly after stepping aboard discovered how badly I had been lied to in that interview. I simply could not believe what a horrible maintained and unseaworthy vessel it was. The crew struck me as being utter refugees from the industry and more than one had that āthousand mile stareā on their faces when I asked about how the ship did on that run. Never in my career of running other old and tired vessels did I ever have a early premonition of disaster if I took the vessel off the dock but I had it with her. I really believed that once past Cape Race we were going to capsize and all hands would be lost with the ship. With a young daughter at home, I had no desire to die a horrible death at sea and even though I needed the work, I said under no uncertain terms would I assume legal responsibility for such an abominable pile and that same day took a taxi back to the airport and paid my own way home. Needless to say that my wife at the time was not happy at all but I did find other work and while the ship did not founder in the cold North Atlantic on that nor any other voyage how am I to know for sure whether that premonition might well have become real if I had gone to sea on that ship?
Anyway, back to the TAL saga. I believe at the same period of time I was running away from the GAYSIR, Gudmundor also had won the Diego Garcia resupply contract from MSC and acquired the then BAFFIN STRAITS (later TRANSATLANTIC) and ran her on that run until he lost the contract. I saw photos of her and they showed a ship every bit as decrepit as the GAYSIR although not very old at all. Hideous! I also think he was running the SPENCE on the Guantanamo Bay run as well too.
I never ever wondered about my decision and did not follow the company other than when they were mentioned here and most will know that I have always condemned Gudmundor Kjaernestad with as much venom as I can muster as I can barely imagine the toil his crews provide him to earn millions of dollars for the pathetic few sheckles he gives them as reward and how their own lives are being continually risked by his failure to properly care for his ships. I have wanted nothing but downfall for him in all these years and I am more than thrilled to see the MISERABLE LITTLE PUKE finally get his reward although I suspect he has a mountain of money squirreled away outside the country and thus outside the reach of the courts to pay off all the mariners and creditors he is obviously planning to stiff here.
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Taken today in Jax on the St Johns River at North Florida Shipyard.
Cargo still onboard
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One of my co-workers knows a guy on there, going to plant the seed tomorrow.
Heās not going to plant any seed. You guys have no idea what your taking about.
Yeah that is the reason, not that you have a shit system that allows for this to happen over years. Had the idiot paid the crew, how long do you think he could have gotten away with his dangerous practiceses?
Have you already forgotten SS El Faro? Was that also a āHyphenated-Americanā ship owner?
This is a truly fucked situation and only more fuel for the fire that the U.S. needs to be signatory to the MLC convention. I just heard through the grapevine that an ex cadet of mine is stuck in this quagmire and I feel awful for him. There is no excuse for this to happen to any seaman in the world, but certainly not an American citizen on a U.S. flag ship in a U.S port. Despicable.
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Please explain further.
What donāt we know?
All of this is just excuses, your system allows this to happen. Your culture and your laws are fairly anti-worker. If every āHyphenated-Americanā has a disdain for the american worker then itās clearly something horribly wrong with how you organise things.
If you have such low regard for yourself that you donāt even unionise(Iām not talking about your crazy system but a Union to fight for worker rights and collective bargaining), why should anyone else respect you?
Tell me, why has the US not ratified the Maritime Labour Convention?
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Because it would require us to give visa free travel to foreigners from any country in the world just because theyāre seamen. I think it also would require us to allow them to have shore leave as well.
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