Sailors from Ukraine stranded in New York harbor (08/08/99)

Sailors from Ukraine stranded in New York harbor

NEW YORK - Sailors stranded aboard a Ukrainian cargo vessel off the New York coast received emergency rations on August 2 after being anchored for three months in Gravesend Bay off Brooklyn.

The Associated Press reported that the crew of 23 men and three women got an infusion of supplies courtesy of the Seamen's Church Institute, a non-profit organization serving area mariners, after Coast Guard inspectors found the ship was low on food.

The captain of the ship, Aleksander Golub, 62, told The New York Times that he had repeatedly requested provisions from the American representative of the ship's owner, but had received inadequate supplies of food, water and medicine.

John Hillin, civilian commander of the Coast Guard's port state control section, said the 8,400-ton Znamia Oktiabria (Banner of October), which regularly transports automobiles between New York and the Dominican Republic, had been in anchorage since April, awaiting an assignment from its owners. The Coast Guard contacted the Seamen's Church after unsuccessful attempts to reach the ship's owner, the Azov Shipping Co., which is based in Mariupol, Ukraine, and has a local representative in Secaucus, N.J. The Coast Guard commander also said the crew hadn't been paid in four months.

Pat Carlson, a Seamen's Church official in Port Newark, N.J., said a supply of meat, fresh vegetables, fruits and other staples - enough for at least three days - was delivered to the ship. She said the Seamen's Church would probably send another food package if the need arises.

The AP also reported that an official of the Ukraine's Consulate General in New York expressed concern and promised to look into the situation.

Contacted on August 4 by The Ukrainian Weekly, Consul Bohdan Yaremenko explained: "Upon our request, the Azov Shipping Co. has announced that later today or tomorrow they will provide the ship with all necessary provisions, food, etc." He said the Consulate has also requested that the Azov Shipping Co. decide in the next few days whether or not the ship will return to Ukraine.

Mr. Yaremenko noted that the Consulate was contacted about this matter on August 2 by the U.S. Coast Guard; he would not say whether the ship's crew had contacted the Consulate General earlier.

The New York Times (which carried a news story about the stranded crew on the front page of its Metropolitan section on August 3) reported that the vessel first came to the attention of the Coast Guard in January, while off Sandy Hook, N.J., when Capt. Ivan Kozlov, the master, was found hanged in his stateroom. The death sparked an investigation by the FBI, which determined that there had been no foul play. Capt. Golub attributed his predecessor's suicide to depression about the fate of his ship and crew.

Douglas Stevenson, a lawyer for the Seamen's Church Institute and its Center for Seafarers' Rights, said the Azov Shipping Co. currently has half a dozen ships stranded around the world, off Europe, Asia and Africa.

At press time, The Ukrainian Weekly learned that a group of Ukrainian veterans from the Metropolitan New York area was marshaling forces to help the seamen from Ukraine.

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