For more than two weeks now, the crew of the transport ship that collided with Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge has remained on board, leading many to wonder why.
In emailed statements, representatives from the Key Bridge Response Team and the Baltimore International Seafarers’ Center, which provides religious and social services to sailors, explained that the anchorage currently experienced by sailors aboard of the Dali ship is part of daily work.
“The ship is still considered a working vessel,” said the Rev. Joshua Messick, executive director of the Seafarers’ Center. Futurism. “It’s not that they haven’t been allowed to leave, but they are working in tandem with the agencies involved in the recovery and cleanup efforts.”
A representative of the Maryland Port Authority’s official Key Bridge Response Team echoed Messick’s sentiments.
Dali’s crew, as the spokesperson told us, “is still committed to maintaining the current condition of the ship, supporting Unified Command mission operations, and cooperating with the ongoing investigation.” .
As the same representative said Futurism in a previous email exchange, Dali’s crew was “prepared for a 35-day voyage and had enough supplies on board to sustain them” – even though that 35-day voyage would have included their return to South Asia. South, where the ship and its crew originated from. (If the ship must remain in Baltimore beyond this time window, it is unclear what will happen to the crew.)
While anchored in Baltimore Harbor, the crew of the ship that collided with the Key Bridge in late March, the response team told us in our previous article on their current state, had access to “mental health resources, religious accommodations”. and morale-building activities,” presumably to deal with both the prolonged isolation in foreign waters and the fallout from the accident, which resulted in the deaths of six migrant workers who were on deck at that time. that moment.
“We maintain an open line of communication with the crew through their vessel representative,” the Key Bridge response representative said. Futurism earlier in the week, “and they seem in good spirits and in good health.”
Although one crew member was airlifted from the ship to receive medical treatment after the accident, he was discharged shortly afterward — and as Messick, executive director of the Seafarer’s Center, told us , coordinating a new shore leave would be “difficult” even under better circumstances.
“This is still an active investigation into a vessel that is not currently moored in a location with direct access to shore,” the reverend told us. “Additionally, to leave the ship at any time, a seafarer requires a U.S. visa and a shore pass issued by the (Coast Guard). I am not aware of the current status of sailors’ qualifications.”
“It’s not that they’re being denied shore leave, but the current conditions are not conducive to it,” Messick continued. “A sailor working on a ship at anchor cannot receive shore leave, and it’s pretty much the same situation.”
It remains unclear when the Singapore-based ship or its crew, most of whom are from India or Sri Lanka, will be able to return home — meaning that for now, they remain stuck in Baltimore Harbor.
Read more about the Key Bridge disaster: Crew Still Stranded on Ship Two Weeks After Baltimore Bridge Destruction
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