Seventeen Ukrainian sailors rescued off North Carolina coast (02/09/03)

Seventeen Ukrainian sailors rescued off North Carolina coast

by Andrew Nynka

PARSIPPANY, N.J. - Seventeen Ukrainian sailors were rescued about 200 miles off the coast of North Carolina after their shipping vessel, the White Seal, began sinking in the morning hours of January 24, the U.S. Coast Guard announced the same day.

The Coast Guard Rescue Coordination Center, located in Norfolk, Va., received a distress signal at 8:04 a.m. reporting that the cargo vessel White Seal was disabled, rolling 45-degrees and taking on water.

An HH-60J Jay Hawk helicopter based at the Elizabeth City Coast Guard Air Station arrived on the scene where the 600-foot ship was listing in what Coast Guard officials described as 30- to 50-foot seas with freezing rain and winds of 30 to 50 miles per hour.

"It definitely added to the level of challenge," said Lt. Cmdr. Dave Self, a Coast Guard aircraft commander from Elizabeth City, N.C.

Blowing snow and sleet reduced visibility to about one-half mile, he added.

The rescue helicopter hoisted all 17 sailors - three of whom left the ship in only their underwear - to safety some time around 9 a.m. on Friday and flew the sailors to the U.S. Customs office at New Hanover International Airport in Wilmington, N.C.

The Ukrainian crew was immediately turned over to U.S. Customs and the Immigration and Naturalization Service. They were all granted 30-day visas and have been stranded in Wilmington, N.C., without money since January 24, said Terry Gootee, whose Ukrainian wife, Lena, and friend, Alla, have been interpreting for the Ukrainian sailors.

However, the 17 sailors, all from Mariupol, Ukraine, have received help from a group of local Russian and Ukrainian Americans and organizations such as the Red Cross and Salvation Army, as well as the hotel where they are currently staying, the Wilmington Inn.

"They lost nearly everything they had on the boat," said Father Joshua of Wilmington's Holy Cross Monastery of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the U.S.A., who also has been working to provide aid for the Ukrainians. "Several left behind their prescription glasses. We're doing what we can to help them," Father Joshua said.

The men have received support also from the community in Wilmington, N.C. Some residents there appear quite taken with the Ukrainians, and students from local schools have made cards for the sailors and presented one sailor with a birthday present, a teddy bear and a bottle of cologne, a local newspaper reported.

Mr. Gootee described the men as extremely friendly and polite, and said that one man wanted to give him some food. "It was given to him [the Ukrainian], it was all he had and he wanted to give it to me as a 'thank you'," Mr. Gootee said.

The sailors, who range in age from 21 to 62, have not been paid for two months and they have not been able to contact the ship's owner, who the ship's captain, Jake Korniyuk, said is Haitian. The Ukrainian sailors said they desperately want to go home but have no intention of doing so until they are paid.

Capt. Korniyuk and his men have enlisted the help of the International Transport Federation to help them recoup their unpaid wages. The boat's owner, apparently speaking through a middleman by the name of Capt. Amin, who also is described as Haitian, refuses to pay the sailors until his insurance company reimburses him for the sunken White Seal.

At the moment it is unclear what will happen with the Ukrainian sailors, Father Joshua said. They face deportation after their visas expire, but Father Joshua said that some members of the community are actively looking to find a contract for the sailors with another shipping company so that they may begin working again.

The White Seal was scheduled to arrive in Bridgeport, Mass., from Haiti on January 22, but was delayed at sea for a week due to engine problems. The ship was reportedly not carrying any cargo. White Seal is registered in Tonga, a small island in the South Pacific.

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