Unpaid seafarers aboard the 5,900-dwt Newlead Granadino (built 2009) report increasing privations as owner and manager NewLead Holdings remains silent on when the ship will be repaired and the crew sent home.
As reported in TradeWinds, the vessel has been at anchorage in Baltimore Harbor on the US East Coast since 20 September experiencing engine problems. US Coast Guard has also detained the ship due to safety violations.
NewLead supplied food to the crew that is expected to last through the end of October. But some of the crew of 18 seafarers, led by Romanian national Captain Tudor Corfus, are lacking personal care items, according to an email received by Barbara Shipley, an inspector with the International Transport Workers’ Federation.
Most of the crew “don't have shampoos and toothpaste anymore,” the email said. “Others (are) using salt for brushing and soap bar as a shampoo.”
The crew member also said: “Regarding the repair, we haven't heard any news from the company including the repatriation.”
The crew has also not been paid for the last month and is reporting they are owed backwages totalling $146,000.
A comment from NewLead was unavailable by presstime. But a representative previously told TradeWinds that the company never intended to delay paying crew wages but difficult market conditions “caused cash flow restraints”. The broken engine added to those problems, preventing the vessel from continuing to trade.
NewLead said it would pay the crew its back wages as soon as possible and is arranging to repatriate crew members.
French bank Natixis, which has a lien on the vessel, is said to be monitoring the situation.
The Baltimore International Seafarers Center is taking donations for the crew and assembling personal care kits.
