One of five Pakistani seamen, stranded in Ireland since November 1999, told Mr Justice Barr in the High Court yesterday they had received no wages and were without heating or water on their ship. They were tired and wanted to go home.
The ship, docked in Dublin, was recently sold for £85,000, and yesterday Mr Justice Barr adjourned until tomorrow a claim by the ship's managers that they own the equipment on the vessel, Arachovitika Bay. The seamen oppose this claim.
Mr Colm O hOisin, for the men, said the grain-carrying vessel came into Greenore, Co Louth, in November 1999. It was detained because of deficiencies relating to seaworthiness. The ship was towed unmanned to Dublin, where repairs were carried out. The owners were not able to meet the conditions for a single voyage to a Latvian shipyard and the ship remained in detention.
Mr O hOisin said the ship was arrested on December 11th for non-payment of wages totalling $133,479 and was sold by public auction on February 15th last. The sale is due to close on Thursday.
He said equipment belonging to the ship was in a container for safe keeping. The equipment had been removed by the ship's master, who had since gone home for family reasons, and by a man acting as an agent for the ship's owners.
He said the crew took issue with a claim that the equipment belonged to the ship's managers, Sea Freighters Navigation Ltd (Liberia). It included navigation and radio equipment which had been dismantled and removed; both were intrinsic parts of the ship.
Counsel for Sea Freighters Navigation Ltd (Liberia) said the navigation equipment was purchased by his clients for $35,000. His clients also claimed ownership of other equipment on the ship.
Mr Justice Barr asked why the ship's managers spent such a large sum of money on equipment and why they had not been in funds by the vessel's owners. Everything of any value seemed to have been removed.
Asked who had purchased the ship, Mr O hOisin said Mr ElazUl-Haq-Syed, managing director of Sea Freighters Navigation, had been present at the auction and had been the successful bidder, presumably for somebody else.