The lender repossessing four tankers from Saint James Shipping has only just learned of the dire state of ships it has under arrest, the London lawyer for Entrust Global has told TradeWinds.
The 18,041-dwt Aeon (built 2012) is now almost out of fuel according to urgent messages from the master.
TradeWinds first reported on the arrest on 27 June and on 22 July reported that the Aeon’s master Captain Zubair Aslam was warning of a loss of power as fuel ran out.
The arrested Aeon is one of four vessels in a repossession dispute between London and Athens-based owner Saint James Shipping, US mortgagee EnTrust Global, Singapore-based Pakistani manager Global Radiance Ship Management, the ships’ former insurer the American Club, the International Transport Workers Federation (ITF) trade union, and suppliers.
Port officials at Mumbai are not allowing bunkerers to approach the Aeon at the anchorage for fear that seasonally rougher seas could disconnect fuel hoses and cause pollution, sources familiar with the operations of the vessel told TradeWinds.
Nor are they allowing the ship to leave the anchorage and come to shore for bunkers, for fear that the unpaid and irregularly provisioned Pakistani crew will refuse to return to sea.
The crew of the arrested product tanker thus faces imminent blackout with possible pollution or loss of life.
“Mayday Mayday Mayday. Now only three days’ bunker left,” wrote captain Aslam on Monday 1 August to all parties. “Mumbai anchorage is very critical location and [the] anchor drags frequently. Vessel will not be able to manoeuvre and there will be a danger of total loss/pollution.”
London lawyer Charles Buss of Watson, Farley, and Williams (WFW), who represents mortgagee EnTrust Global with Mumbai-based maritime law firm Bose & Mitra, told TradeWinds his client’s efforts to fund a solution have been held back by red tape and by a lack of communication.
“Until today I was not aware of the specific urgency of the situation,” he said, referring to the fuel crisis. The seafarers on the Aeon are also short of fresh provisions. Like crew on the other Saint James ships, they have not been paid for months.
“The message we want to communicate is that EnTrust takes its responsibility very seriously and does not want any harm to come to seafarers and wants them to recover their wages. But we can only act as information is provided to us,” he said.
“I am dependent on technical managers or owners telling me what is happening on the ships.”
He added that he only began receiving messages from the masters of the four ships after he was contacted by ITF representative John Wood.
Buss said his clients’ interests are aligned with those of the unpaid crew.
“EnTrust want the crew’s co-operation,” he said. “We have no agenda not to pay them their wages — their claim ranks ahead of ours in court anyway.”
Buss said local officials have made it difficult to help. Port authorities have not allowed lenders to get their representatives on board to inspect the ships.
Also, court procedures do not support expedited action.
“The High Court of Bombay doesn’t have an electronic account,” said Buss. Cash drafts must go to a local lawyer and from them to the court, then to a court official designated as receiver.
The situation for the 11,479-dwt Sol (build 2007), under arrest up the coast at Hazira in Gujarat province, is better than that for the Aeon, Buss said. EnTrust has already won an order for judicial sale, giving it greater freedom to act directly.
But even in the case of the Sol, EnTrust remitted “a lot of money” to supply the crew a week ago, and it only became available on Monday 1 August, he said.
The two other Saint James ships financed by EnTrust are not yet arrested.
In the case of the 17,475-dwt Ariana (built 2016), that is because several of the parties fear the results of an arrest by Yemeni authorities at the port of Mocha, in a war zone. As TradeWinds has reported, the Ariana is the scene of a standoff between the crew now on board and a rival master and crew that Saint James has sought to replace them with.
A fourth ship, the 13,554-dwt Lua (built 2010), is berthed at a shipyard in the Dominican Republic after being laid up for many months.
